Fight Through Time
by breather89
Summary: (Originally posted on ArchiveOfOurOwn) When Mad Jack tracks the boys during a time warp, he successfully kidnaps Joe. Fred and Sam have to rely on the help of their great-granddaughters and Uncle Joe as they chase Mad Jack over time. But there is also something that Jodie is hiding from the others...messages given to her from her grandmother, Joe's daughter.


**A/N: This was originally posted on ArchiveOfOurOwn by my brother, MoonSilverSprite (He says that he gave me permission on his profile, if you want to double-check). I asked him if I could paste it on here and he eventually gave in. I really hope you enjoy this and if you wish to see his notes on the story itself as a whole, check out his story.**

 **2088,** _ **Brooklyn**_

 _Joanne set up the video camera and smiled sweetly. "That's fine, James," she told her son, "just let it roll."_

 _James walked away as the light turned on, to let Joanne know that everything was on. She swallowed, her bony fingers tapping away on the pages she held in her hands. "Jodie," she began, "it's Grandma Joanne. It's strange, actually – you won't be born for seven years. But I have to talk now. Joe – your great-grandfather, my dad – needs you more than ever very soon. On December 15th 2006 – or, for you, December 15th 2106 – he and his friends, Fred and Sam, will travel back to the seventeenth century. Mad Jack will start to trail them and he will go after Joe._

" _My existence – your existence, Jodie – all hinges on you and Samantha and Freddi helping him. Because that day will be the start of my father's journey into being a Warp Wizard. All of time depends on what happens to them over the next seventy-two hours. Fred and Sam need their great-granddaughters too. You all need to support each other._

" _I'm an old woman, Jodie. I haven't travelled in time since I was a child. My dad – God rest his soul – recently passed on and that means that I am theoretically the owner of the Book. But I don't use it. James never used it. But you will, Jodie. If I am right, I already recorded the video you will watch on your fifth birthday. I have no idea what happened – will happen – the few days that the six of you trekked across time, as Joe fought Mad Jack. But on top of everything, you have to make sure Joe survives. Even if you don't."_

 **2006, Brooklyn**

"You can't open the Book?" Fred's voice called down from the kitchen, as Joe hurriedly tried to force open the Book with a fork.

"Well it's not my fault that _someone_ got marshmallows on it!" Joe groaned as the fork flew backwards and stuck into the wall.

"I was cooking smores!" Fred snapped as he came upstairs and opened the door, "Tried using a screwdriver?"

"I did," Joe lay back on his hands, "and a fork, a hacksaw, a pizza cutter, a can-opener and four knives and the best I have done is tear some of the gloop off of the cover."

"Well, Sam's coming by in a few minutes," Fred tried to calm his friend down, "he could have a look."

But Joe just lay onto his front and buried his head in a pillow, groaning with frustration.

"If we don't get it fixed, it'll be yet another close call." He mumbled into his pillow.

"Better to know at the time," Sam said, entering the bedroom, "rather than realise something was wrong later. Your mom let me in."

"Sam, you know how to get marshmallows off the Book?" Fred pointed at the mess stuck onto the cover. Sam grimaced, but knelt down to take a good look.

"Well, I'd say hold it above a kettle and let the steam take the marshmallows off," he suggested, "but the pages might get water condensation. Then again, it didn't get wet when we fell down a well during the San Francisco earthquake three months ago, so I'd say it could work."

"What were you saying about realising something later?" Fred leaned against the doorway as Sam pulled small bits from the cover off with his fingernails.

"Oh," Sam flicked marshmallow onto the carpet, "remember when we saved Genghis Khan? The father of all of Europe and Asia? Well, a couple of months later I remembered that if we hadn't saved him, most of the population of Asia and Eastern Europe would have disappeared. Which, since I have Russian heritage, would have included _me_. Is – is Joe OK?"

Joe lifted his head from the pillow and looked at his friends. "Uncle Joe came round yesterday," he explained, "said he saw Mad Jack and didn't say where. Uncle Joe was acting weird around me. I – told him that I was already planning ahead for my birthday and he started mumbling to himself. I – think I'm going to fight Mad Jack very soon."

Fred and Sam looked at each other, worried.

For the previous six months, Uncle Joe had brought various Time Masters – namely a man called Lenny and a woman named Daisy – to try and teach Joe about controlling time. It started off easily, with Joe freezing time so as to stop arrows being shot at an apple on top of Fred, but the endless meditation and working outside in cold weather had been irritable.

Joe carried on. "And that's what I'm worried about. I don't know if anyone's going to get hurt. Anyone I love. Or what Mad Jack's going to do. Is it an actual fistfight through time zones or is it with our minds, as you would say, Sam."

He sat up. "Uncle Joe also looked a bit queasy when I said that Anna had started at Girl Scouts. What he has against Girl Scouts, I don't know."

As Sam wrenched some marshmallow off of the cover, he told the others, "Better than horse-riding, I assume. Mom said that if she ever had a girl, she'd have taken her horse-riding. I'm sorry I turned out the wrong sex, Mom."

Then the Book began to glow.

"Oh, no," Joe grumbled, "not now!"

As they started to be sucked in by the green mist, Joe grabbed his satchel from the bed. It was just large enough to hide the Book in, he thought.

 **1676, Cambridge, England**

The three boys landed on a dirt road, one of top of the other.

Joe sat up, brushing himself off as his friends did the same. "What do you think caused the Book to bring us here?" he asked.

Sam opened it up. "Well, I was talking about horse-riding and the Book says that we're in England in 1676, but I actually haven't a clue."

Before either Joe or Fred could say anything, they heard a voice call out, "Halt!"

Tensing up, they listened to whoever it was.

The voice behind them cried out, "Stand and deliver!"

The three boys all turned, simultaneously reaching to the sky so as to avoid being shot. A man sitting astride a black horse looked down at them. He raised an eyebrow when he saw them properly.

"You are but boys!" he exclaimed, "What are you doing out so early?"

"Going for a walk." Joe tried, but all it did was make Fred and Sam roll their eyes.

"Hand over anything of value!" The highwayman held his pistol at them.

The boys all pulled out their pockets and aside from some bubblegum belonging to Fred, they didn't have anything. For a moment, they were terrified that the highwayman would take the Book, but he didn't seem all too interested in it.

The man grunted. "Never mind. I have no time to rob anybody. I need to travel to York. Which way is north?"

"We don't know." Fred answered, truthfully.

Sam pointed out, "Well, it's early morning, right? So the sun's in the east, which means that north is that way."

The highwayman smiled for a second, before thanking them and pulling at the horse's bridle, letting it speed off in a cloud of dust and mud.

"Who was that man?" Fred asked. Sam looked back at the Book.

He explained, "It says that it's 1676, and he said he was going to York. The Book says that we're in Cambridgeshire, so that must be John Nevison. He carried out a famous ride to York."

"That doesn't tell us much." Fred folded his arms. Sam groaned.

"He was robbing a stagecoach at 4am, in Gads Hill in Kent, when the victim recognised him. Nevison needed an alibi, so he rode his horse all the way up to York, arriving about 8pm. It was an amazing feat of over two hundred miles, well before the invention of steam trains."

"So where are we supposed to go?" Joe asked, "The Book doesn't work here."

Sam flicked through the pages. "Ah! There's a message from Freddi. It says, 'meet us at the Frog and Nightdress Inn, York, 6am tomorrow."

"How far away is York?" Fred asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A hundred and fifty miles." Sam answered, wincing. Joe and Fred groaned.

"Well, I suppose we'd better get moving. Though how we'll get there by tonight, I don't know." Joe sighed, taking the Book and placing it inside his satchel.

Walking under the canopy of trees, they were a little frightened that they would come across someone else who was nastier than Nevison. But it seemed that no-one was awake, let alone hiding in the darkness.

"Do you have the time?" Sam asked Fred, after a while.

Fred shrugged. "I didn't adjust my watch."

"Well, how long does your watch say it has been?" Sam asked crossly.

Fred pushed up his sleeve. "Around half an hour." He groaned and sat down on a tree stump. "It's going to be a nightmare getting to York!"

"May I look at the Book?" Sam asked Joe. Joe took the Book from the satchel and Sam opened it up, sitting by Fred.

"Fred," Sam asked, glaring at his friend, "did you fix the dating system again?"

Fred pulled a twig from his hair and mumbled, "Probably."

Sam rolled his eyes and complained, "I had the BCE/CE setting and you changed it back to the BC/AD setting? I had everything memorized!"

Fred groaned outwardly, before resting his arm on Sam's shoulder. "Look, Sam, I changed it because it's easier to read in a hurry. Remember when we wanted to go shopping in Edwardian London and ended up…"

"…being chased by Bronze Age warriors?" Joe finished.

"I got us to the right place," Sam pointed out, flipping through the pages, "just four thousand years earlier."

Fred rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the pages. "Freddi said she'd meet us in the inn in York at six am. That's roughly twelve hours and four hundred miles away. Do you suppose we could get there a little faster?"

"Not sure," Sam replied, "why's it glowing?"

Joe came to take a closer look and as soon as his hands touched it, writing started to appear in green ink.

"Congratulations, Time Page," Joe read, "you must now press the watch against the paper."

"Wait, Joe, we don't know what it'll do –" Sam started to point out, but Joe had already done so.

Everything suddenly went cold and quiet. The leaves weren't rustling on the trees, the sounds of the cows in the nearby fields had ceased and they suddenly felt as if they had been dunked in freezing water.

Joe looked at his watch and saw that it was counting down from three hours.

"I guess this means time is frozen for us. For about three hours," he put the watch back around his neck, "so let's start walking."

"I can't believe we're walking to York," Sam grumbled, hands underneath his armpits and trying not to bump into any trees, "at least Nevison used a horse!"

"How long do you think it'll take to get there?" Fred asked him, putting his jumper on.

Sam thought for a moment. "About three days. That's if we walk for sixteen hours a day. It's one of the reasons why John Nevison was thought to be innocent, since he rode from Kent to York in sixteen hours."

"Sam, do don't have a calculator in your head by any chance?" Fred teased.

"Well, our brains work…" Sam began, but Fred playfully punched him on the shoulder.

"I was just kidding."

They walked on for longer. Soon, on the outskirts of a village, they started to see people walking about very slowly. Time was beginning to move again.

"What should we do?" Fred asked.

Joe replied, "Well, when we get going again, we could hire some horses."

"We don't have any money," Sam argued, "not even seventeenth century money. We can't keep pausing time and I already have blisters."

"I'll try and think of something," Joe quickly told him, as his friends lay down on the wet grass, "I promise."

Twenty minutes, a stolen loaf of bread and three borrowed horses later, the three of them were speeding along the dirt roads. Joe had his satchel tied around his waist, just to see on the safe side, squinting his eyes and feeling the thrill of the chase run through his veins. The other two were ducking down and holding onto their horses for dear life.

Trampling through the woods was not a good thing, it seemed. They had to constantly duck to avoid getting smacked by branches. Going through farms was worse, as Sam was almost attacked by a flock of geese.

By 5pm, the three of them had reached the town of Lincoln. All three were coated in dead bugs, had leaves in their hair (or in Fred's case, his hat) and were hungry.

Getting the horses to drink from the River Witham, the boys stole from some ploughmen in the fields. "We don't want to do it," Joe said to the others as he stuffed his mouth with cheese and pickle, "but we don't have any food."

"So why is Freddi in York?" Sam asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Joe shrugged. "Maybe she has her version of the Book there. Maybe she's found something. Maybe it's just coincidence."

"She knew we were here," Fred got up and started walking to the horses, "I'd say that it's like when we were in New Jersey with Edison."

As soon as he tried to climb on his horse, it brushed him away with its head.

"Hey!" Fred grumbled. His friends came up.

"They're tired," Sam told them, "they don't want to have to move."

"Well, we can't take any more horses," Joe argued, "so I'd say let's wait."

"How long? Maybe six hours?" Fred asked. "But it'll be dark. The endless riding, the woods and the geese I can take, but the dark is worse." The three horses were now lying on the grass, drifting to sleep.

"Well, when we go, I'll pause time," Joe tried to stay confident, but he felt uneasy himself, "I'll read the Book to see if there's anything about using it too much."

Almost an hour later, as the sky was just turning a light pink, Joe shut the Book and placed it back in his satchel. Walking over to the grassy knoll where Fred and Sam sat, Joe smiled confidently.

"The Book doesn't say about using it too much," he crossed his arms, "only that there has to be at least a six-hour wait. It's been way more than that, so I'd say let's go."

Pausing time, they woke the horses and slowly trotted through the muddy lanes. It was eerie, watching the fields and farms and villages go by, with everything as still as statues. Almost as if they were seeing a picture.

Then, just as they were outside a village apparently named Moorends, the wildlife about them began to slowly move. Barely noticeable at first, but then faster and faster, before the boys and their horses were going just as fast as everything about them.

"What now?" Fred asked, "How many miles are we from York?"

Sam thought for a moment. "Fewer than fifty miles. I'd say we have another three hours to get to York. Freddi doesn't need us until 6am, so we could sleep out here."

"In the cold? In a field?" Joe grumbled.

"It's not ideal, I know," Sam replied, "but I can't think of any other option."

Ten minutes later, with the three horses nestling down in the long grass, the boys huddled together by the largest horse. Fred had taken his jumper off and was lying underneath it. Sam took his anorak out from the satchel and had followed suit. Joe, however, had nothing, aside from using said satchel as a pillow.

"It could be worse," Sam tried to add a bit of humour to the situation, "we've had worse."

Joe snorted, rolling over.

Before any of them could say anything else, they had fallen asleep.

Waking at dawn, just before 4am the next morning, they all set off again on their horses, as fast as the four-legged creatures carried them. Pausing time again so that the horses could go at a slower pace, they waited for time to start again while sitting on a hill.

Riding into York at half past five, they asked for directions to the Frog and Nightdress. After given an address, they arrived fifteen minutes later.

Fred knocked on the door and a burly innkeeper answered.

"Hey," Fred held his hand up, "I think we're supposed to meet someone here."

The innkeeper seemed puzzled, before he smiled. "Of course! I remember! They came two days ago. Yes, young man, your sister is upstairs."

"Oh, she's not my sister," Fred gabbled quickly, thinking that he would vomit and Sam certainly looked as if he was about to, "she's my…"

"Oh, never mind," the innkeeper opened the door, "she said she was a relative of yours. I just thought, since you look like her…"

"Yeah, thanks," Fred mumbled, rushing past, calling, "Freddi?"

Freddi opened a door by the stairs. "Fred! You made it!" she smiled and ran down.

Fred turned her about almost as soon as her feet touched the floor and muttered, "Let's just get away – now."

Once all three boys had gone upstairs to the room Samantha and Freddi were sharing, Fred asked his great-granddaughter how her message had appeared in the Book. Joe was warming up by the fire and Samantha was pulling her hair out from under the cap that Sam had given her for her eleventh birthday.

"Well," Freddi explained, sitting on her bed, "Samantha and I wanted to see highwaymen. So we went to 1676 to see the famous John Nevison finish his ride."

"It was that or go with Grandma Becky to the ocean life exhibit in the South Atlantic," Samantha finished for her, "which is great, but we've seen it ten times."

"And as Samantha didn't want to keep having to dress as a boy," Freddi carried on, "and we found that you had landed in Cambridge, we asked you to come up. How was the journey?"

"Boring," Joe answered.

"Terrifying," Sam answered.

"Cold," Fred answered.

"So you've had a good time," Freddi lay back on her hands, crossing her legs, "John Nevison's downstairs. The law are after him. But he gave his alibi."

"John Nevison watched a game of bowls with the Mayor of York," Sam held his finger up, "and the law weren't able to believe that a man could be in Kent at 4am and in York at 8pm the same day, so he was let off."

"Surely he didn't get away with it?" Joe queried.

"He did," Sam nodded, "even the king loved it. But he will be executed in 1684 for killing a man who tried arresting him."

"So, how do we get back?" Fred asked.

Freddi opened her Book. "Oh, we're going home shortly. We just have to see John Nevison avoid being arrested. It could happen today or tomorrow. In any case, I'd like to look about an early modern English town."

Joe stayed in the room with both versions of the Book, hidden inside his satchel and inside one of Freddi's spare shirts, while the other four walked about York.

While they were wandering, they passed Nevison being confronted by some constables – at least, that's what Sam said they were. Watching from a market stall, none of them noticed a metallic device flying through the air, blown from a reed pipe, attaching itself to Fred's trainer.

From the church tower, Mad Jack put his binoculars down and snickered to himself.

The Time Bomb would detach itself when they got back to Joe's room, sending them to where he planned to ambush them.

When the five of them were together again in the Frog and Nightdress, they went back to their respective times via their Books.

 **2006, Brooklyn**

"Well, that was something," Sam told his friends as he descended the stairs, "I'd better go now. See you later!"

Fred waved goodbye at Joe as he left the room. But the Time Bomb flew off of his ankle and fell into Joe's cupboard.

It lay there, waiting, waiting to send the boys back again.

Where Mad Jack would get Joe.

 **Mad Jack's Lair**

He had everything planned out.

While he would usually be able to work out where the Book would be used, then follow them back, Mad Jack had decided he would do something different this time.

This time, he would trap Joe. Take him back to his lair, force him to show him how the Book worked, then probably get rid of him.

Mad Jack grimaced when he remembered his last encounter with them. Just four months ago, he had gone back to Culloden, where he had seen Joe in one of the Highland villages. He had been with Fred and Freddi, unaware of his evil uncle's presence.

But when Mad Jack had tried to attack them, time had apparently stopped. The last time Mad Jack saw them, they were running away at an incredibly fast speed and he himself had fallen face-first into freezing mud. When he'd tried to go after them, his staff had sent him to 2112. And although he had learnt something interesting while in that time period, he was still embarrassed by what had occurred.

After coming back here and taking a shower, Mad Jack had considered the possibility that his nephew was getting better. After all, when he had stolen a file from the Time Masters regarding Joe – after a small trip to where it was hidden, underneath Mabel's Diner – he had seen that Joe was about to become a Time Squire.

It was too much for Mad Jack to think about. Soon, Joe would be more powerful than him.

And Mad Jack couldn't allow that.

Mad Jack was certainly ready to ambush the boys.

Hiding that Time Bomb had been easier than he had thought. Far from the first time he had gone into Joe's room (a nasty recollection of Madagascar under Ranavalona came back to Mad Jack, causing him to shudder), this one was due to send the boys back to 1846 Ireland.

There, he would grab Joe.

Mad Jack was already prepared. A map of the village in 1846 with the Time Agent's house marked with an 'X', the dates that the boat Clover was due to sail from County Cork, a Bowie knife hidden inside his belt, cords for tying up the captive, a lantern and a message scrawled on the back of a piece of paper; all secured inside his pockets.

Mad Jack was ready to set off.

 _ **2088, Brooklyn**_

" _She was called Phoebe, in case you ever wondered," Joanne spoke to the camera, "because I know that James doesn't have any pictures of her in his house. None of us did."_

 _She gripped the arms of her chair with her brittle hands, sighing deeply._

" _I was five years old the first time I saw her. She didn't live with us, Jodie. It was me and Joe, and Joe's parents and Anna. None of us talked about Phoebe. When – during a family painting at nursery, I drew everybody in green crayon, before my teacher asked me where my Mommy was. I think it was at that time that I realised I didn't have a mommy. Not that I ever wanted one._

" _I remember Joe playing with me with the swing in the back garden. I was possibly six. Great-Uncle Joe came by, appearing out of thin air. I remember staring up at him before Joe introduced us. After that, I asked about any other relatives I had. I knew about Phoebe – I never called her 'Mom' – but I didn't know about her side of the family._

" _It wasn't until I was much older when I discovered why he didn't talk about her side of the family. But when I was a little kid, he kept mumbling whenever I asked him, or he pushed me away and went upstairs._

" _Anna finally told me how they met, when I was seven. Phoebe met Joe at her Girl Scouts Club. I kept imagining that they had secret kisses together, or that they went to the movies. I know she certainly brought him a baseball cap, because I found it in the back of his closet, gathering dust. It said, 'To my wonderful Joe' inside. I truly thought that they loved each other._

" _I was fourteen when I found out the truth, Jodie. It was the worst day of my whole life."_

 **2006, Brooklyn**

Fred and Sam came around to Joe's house the next day. As it was a Saturday and there was no school, this meant that they would usually spend all their time together.

Prior to Joe's tenth birthday, this often meant watching a film or going to the park, where Fred and Joe would skateboard or play basketball, while Sam would point out interesting facts.

After receiving the Book, anything could happen.

On some weekends, the girls came back in time to see them. If they did come, however, they often had to make sure that Joe's parents weren't at home. Which had sometimes meant going out. The diner and the pizza restaurant had been good places, but considering that they had ended up in Ancient Greece and medieval Scotland whenever they had, this had been frustrating, to say the least.

This weekend, however, Joe was left alone babysitting Anna, as his parents had gone out to work. The boys were just lying about the room, completely bored.

"You know, sometimes when we time-travel, it sends my body clock out of whack," Sam broke the silence, sitting up against Joe's bed, "I couldn't get to sleep four hours last night. Mom was not pleased."

Fred grunted. "Same thing happens to me. I couldn't sleep all night after I came back from Camelot."

"Yeah, how did we end up in a mythical kingdom, anyway?" Sam questioned.

But Joe wasn't interested. "Look, maybe we don't have to use the Book," he opened his closet door, "we could try roller-blading."

But the second he opened the cupboard, there was a blinding flash. All three of the boys saw swirling green mist and realised they were hurtling through time.

 **1846, County Galway, Ireland**

"OK, where did the Book send us this time?" Fred dared to look up when he was certain that no arrows, spears or bullets were being thrown at them.

From what the three boys could see, they were in the middle of a very muddy field. The sky was cloudy, but didn't look as if it would rain. Possibly.

Joe opened the Book. "It says we're in Ireland, 1846. Anything important at that time, Sam?"

Before Sam could answer, they heard the sound of a shotgun. Screaming, the three boys held onto each other as an angry-looking farmer stormed across the muddy field.

"You boys get off my land!" he shouted, "There aren't no potatoes left, anyway! Shoo!"

"That's fine," Joe tried to sound calm, but his insides were shaking, "I prefer fries."

"Joe," Sam muttered, "this is the middle of the Irish potato famine! Everyone's starving!"

The boys let go of each other as the farmer trudged up. He roared, "Get out of here! You want potatoes? Take 'em!"

He kicked at the ground and the boys saw a lump, green potato emerge from the mud. Sam knelt down to take a closer look.

"The potato was the most common food for the Irish, before the famine," he pushed his glasses up as he explained to his friends, "but in 1846, the crops failed. Sure, some farmers had other crops, but they all had to be sold to pay rent. The British refused to give much relief, because the government believed that feeding the poor, starving Irish was beneath them."

The farmer snorted. "You talk funny. You Brits?"

"No," Fred answered, as Sam stood up, "American."

"I suppose that's something," the farmer mumbled, "Come over on the _Clover_ , did you?"

"The _Clover_?" Joe asked, puzzled.

The farmer pointed off into the distance. "The boat to New York. Half the village is going. We're fed up of the landlords taking our food."

"Sounds good to me," Fred shrugged, "where is the village?"

"Five minute walk that way," the farmer gestured, "we're setting off tomorrow. Need a couple of extra pairs of hands to get everything moving, though."

When they arrived in the village, it was unbelievable how skinny everybody looked. Men, women and children, clothes hanging off of skeletal frames, sunken cheekbones and wide, bulging eyes. It reminded Joe of Halloween decorations, except these were real, dying people.

Nervously, Joe tried to step away from them. He was more worried that they would try and snatch the Book in the satchel, thinking there could be food inside. However, the starving peasants saw his anxiety as disgust, as they went off muttering to themselves.

The farmer knocked on the door of a stone hut, which appeared as though it may collapse in a slight breeze. A stick-thin woman answered. When she saw the boys, she complained to the farmer, "Seamus! We don't even have enough food for ourselves! What are you doing, bringing these lads along?"

"Bridget," he tried to console her, "these boys came with the boat. They're helping us move to America."

Bridget pulled at Fred's skin on his cheek. "Bit fat, aren't you?"

Fred glared at her. "Hey, watch it!"

"Don't mind Bridget," Seamus butted in as quickly as he could, "every foreigner seems fat to us."

A small child looked out from behind Bridget's skirts. She looked maybe seven or eight years old, but they were in another time period and the children were so underfed that she could be as old as them.

"Have you got any food?" she mumbled, pointing with a bony finger to Joe's satchel.

Joe opened the satchel up. "No, just our Book."

"We'd eat that anyway," Seamus grumbled, "none of us can read. But it gives no sustenance, so it's not even worth it."

"The Irish resorted to eating branches," Sam whispered into Fred's ear, "or even weeds or roots."

"Dinner's inside," Bridget told her husband, "but I have to warn you – it's just turnips and blackberries again."

The little girl whined and her mother held her close to her fraying skirts.

Bridget looked at the boys and held her hands on her hips. "You're not expecting to sleep here, are you?"

Before any of them could answer, Seamus gabbled, "I'm sure they have the dock or the _Clover_. Farewell, boys. See you tomorrow."

The three friends looked out towards the other abysmal houses. Not only were they stuck in the worst part of Ireland's history – and according to Sam, that was saying something – but they had nowhere to stay.

As they went towards the dock, they could see the only boat larger than a fishing boat looming up. The name Clover was on the side.

"We could try to sneak on," Fred suggested, "they do think we're sailors, anyway."

"I don't know," Sam told him, "those guys look pretty fierce." He was pointing to three sailors standing by the edge of the ship, playing cards in the dim light. They all resembled bulls, in Sam's opinion, and none of them smiled.

"Well, I'm not sleeping outside again," Joe crossed his arms, "I've had enough of doing _that_!"

"Just once I'd like to go somewhere that's warm, has indoor plumbing and no-one's trying to kill us," Fred muttered, sitting down on the muddy path, "why's it so muddy, anyway? Ireland's supposed to be the Emerald Isle."

"I think it's because everybody's eaten the grass," Sam replied, "and nettles and all their cattle. Not to mention they could have torn up the grass to find wild vegetables."

"You weren't kidding when you said the people here were starving," Joe said as he looked in the direction of a fishing boat docking, "that guy doesn't even have a net!"

Looking up, they saw some soldiers standing by what seemed the village church. "They look well fed," Joe asked, "why's that?"

Sam had the answer. "The British sent over soldiers because so many oats and grain were being shipped to England. They had been shipped before the famine, but it carried on even though the Irish were dying of hunger."

"That's absolutely disgusting!" Joe pulled a face.

"We still don't know where to sleep, or what we're even supposed to do here." Fred groaned.

"Maybe it's get these villagers to America," Sam suggested, "the Book probably wants us to do a good thing. Doesn't have to be world-changing."

He knew that one of these villagers could end up being the ancestor to someone important in New York or thereabouts, but Sam didn't want to get complicated.

Asking about for places to stay, the three boys took a long time to find somewhere suitable. Asking a soldier, he had told them to get lost. They came across another potato farmer – or rather, he had been a potato farmer, now he was eating grass – and he said that there were plenty of ditches available. He was living in one now, after his landlord had thrown him out. The boys politely declined.

Eventually a woman told them that the vicar had rooms available. But only for two people.

"Right, what now?" Fred asked.

"Rock, paper, scissors?" Joe offered.

"Alright." Fred agreed.

"Rock, paper, scissors!" all three cried.

Both Sam and Fred chose paper. Joe chose rock. Groaning, Joe then complained, "What about me? I'm not sleeping outside!"

"We'll do what we can," Sam promised him, as he and Fred walked off to the church, "try Seamus and Bridget."

As Joe walked off alone back to the miserable stone hut, Mad Jack spied him from an alleyway. Smirking, he realised that Joe was not only alone, but he had the Book with him.

This was too easy!

But Mad Jack knew that Joe would spot him. He only had so many creatures that he could turn into, with DNA strands hidden inside his staff. He couldn't be a monkey again, as they weren't native to Ireland. He couldn't be a horse again, either, as the soldiers would take him. He couldn't be a butterfly, as they weren't very quick.

Nor could he be a cow, sheep, wolf, pigeon, swan, snake or unicorn, as they needed more energy than was available from their DNA in his staff. He made a mental note to restock when he came back to the Time Masters' storeroom.

So it seemed that Mad Jack needed to wait.

The vicar, a tall old man with a weary face, did not seem too pleased at the idea of having two boys stay over, even if it was just for the night. "Very well," he had sighed, "I am leaving for America tomorrow. I am welcome to have weary travellers come for my last night at my home."

Dinner was far more meagre than either boy hoped for. A quarter of a turnip each, with three wild blackberries and a very watery soup made from what they hoped was cornmeal.

Bedtime was an even more exhausting affair. The vicar's lodgings were two rooms next to the main church; a room for eating and a room for sleeping. The 'bed' that the two boys shared was barely more than a couple of threadbare blankets with a rug underneath.

Still, they supposed that this was better than sleeping outside. Especially as they could hear splashes of rain outside.

"Some of the Irish eat shellfish," Sam tried to break the endless silence, "but some of it wasn't cooked and they poisoned themselves. Some people suggested that it was better to die quickly of poison than a slow death by hunger."

"Sam, shut up." Fred groaned.

Joe had indeed been invited back to Seamus and Bridget's house, as he had told his friends as soon as he found out.

Unfortunately, having two parents and three children in the house already meant that Joe went to bed without supper. And sharing a 'bed' with two, scruffy boys who whined all night was also terrible.

The next morning, the three of them met at the dock. The sky still a vivid pink behind the hills, they watched as various people began dragging their few treasured belongings onto the boat. Remembering that they had been mistaken for sailors, the three of them helped carry some of the goods to help the skeletal figures.

"Thank you boys," Seamus smiled a toothless smile at them, "and God bless you."

"It was nothing." Fred shrugged. As he turned around to see Joe leaning against a barnacle-covered post, he asked, "Where's Sam?"

"Not sure," Joe looked about him, "hey! Sam! Where'd you go?"

When Sam had been standing by the dock, letting some villagers walk past, he had seen an envelope held down with twine on a wooden post. He would have ignored it, except that it had Joe's name written in green ink on the front.

Opening it, Sam read the letter.

 _Joe, come to the vicar's house. I have to tell you something important. Uncle Joe._

Sam had immediately wandered off to the vicar's house. It was stupid, really, as he should have gone with the others. That way, he'd have the Book with him in case something went wrong.

Which it did.

Sam peered in through the window, where he saw the vicar sitting at the table. Nudging the slightly ajar door further, the boy started to walk up.

"Sir? I – just wanted to ask – have you seen a man in a purple top hat?"

The vicar looked up and was about to answer when the door slammed shut behind Sam. When Sam looked around, a chill ran down his spine as he recognised who it was.

It was Mad Jack.

"I thought I'd locked you in the crypt!" the vicar suddenly shouted, pointing a bony finger at Mad Jack. Seeing Sam's confused face, he quickly replied, "Time Agent, boy. We were told that he'd be here soon. Better off than my colleague in Salem, let me tell you that."

Mad Jack only snorted. "Well, Lenny, it's been good," he addressed the vicar, "but I'd say that it's time to go." Laughing horribly, he aimed his staff at the Time Agent, sending out a burst of green light that shot him backwards onto the floor.

Sam was frozen with fear as he watched Mad Jack pull a knife out from his belt. Before the boy could scream, Mad Jack had plunged it into the man's chest. At least, that's what appeared to happen. Mad Jack was blocking Sam's view, but Sam could definitely see blood pooling onto the wooden floor.

Sam took two steps backward before Mad Jack stood up. Running to the door, Sam started to shriek.

"Joe! Fred! Help!"

But before he could get there, he was lifted off his feet, Mad Jack holding one arm tightly around Sam's waist. A hand clapped over Sam's mouth before he could shout again. It didn't seem as if anybody had heard him.

"Stop struggling," Mad Jack hissed into Sam's ear, half-dragging, half-carrying him over to the other side of the room, "I have plans for you."

Sam didn't like the sound of that. Trying to elbow Mad Jack in the ribs only resulted in his arm being twisted in a Chinese burn. Sam winced and went still.

By now, Mad Jack held a firm arm across Sam's stomach, pushing his back up against a wooden beam close to the dining table. As he placed his other hand into his pocket and started searching, he explained to Sam what was going on.

"I sent the message to the dock. I knew that you'd find it and come back here. I was hoping to get Joe, but I suppose you'll have to do."

Mad Jack had taken some cords from his pocket and was now pulling Sam's hands behind the beam. As Sam started to struggle again, leaning as far as he could away from the beam, he argued, "You'll never get the Book! Joe's the Warp Wizard."

Mad Jack scoffed. "One incident in Scotland and a walk across frozen English fields. Hardly a Warp Wizard, Sam. Anyway, there's no reason for me to harm you."

Sam stopped struggling and froze. "What do you mean?" he turned his head to try and face his captor.

Mad Jack told him, continuing to tie Sam up.

"After the incident in Scotland, I was sent unexpectedly through time. I landed inside a cupboard in 2112. I recognised it as being Joe's house and I was about to leave when I saw the door open. Imagine my surprise when instead of Joe's descendants, I saw two pretty young ladies. You know them as Samantha and Freddi. I then saw that little Samantha was now all grown up. You can imagine my surprise. She certainly becomes very…" he paused, trying to find the right word to say in front of an eleven-year-old, "pretty."

Sam glared at Mad Jack furiously, or as best as he could without being able to turn his head around. "Don't you _dare_ hurt her!"

"There is no need, Sam," Mad Jack chuckled as he pulled up a chair and sat beside him, "I promise you that I will not hurt a hair on either of your heads. But I decided that when I become Ruler of Time itself, I will take a little trip back to 2112 and pay Samantha a visit. She will sit on a throne next to me."

Sam tried his best to free himself and attack Mad Jack, preferably scratch his eyes out, but he was tied too tightly. Mad Jack smiled at Sam's weak attempt.

"There's no need to worry. I won't harm you, Sam. Maybe I'll let Fred live, too. Joe, I am afraid, I cannot make the same promise."

He chuckled nastily, causing Sam's blood to chill once more.

The two boys and the few villagers left waved goodbye as the _Clover_ set off in the direction of America. The whole process had taken longer than they had expected, as the sky was no longer pink. But now, the half-hearted cheers of the starved Irish started to fade. A few minutes later, the _Clover_ had disappeared on the horizon.

"Well, I hope it's better than here," Fred mumbled when the crowd dispersed, "come on, let's find Sam."

"You sure he didn't go on the boat?" Joe asked, anxiously. Fred nodded, confidently, holding the letter from Mad Jack.

"He was reading something. I picked it up when the boat set sail. It's from Uncle Joe."

"Really?" Joe's eyes grew wide and he took the letter from Fred. "We'd better get there now," he said, as they made their way past empty stone huts.

"Err, Mad Jack?" Sam asked, worriedly, "How long are we waiting?"

Mad Jack had been playing Patience with a pack of cards on the dining table for the last fifteen minutes. Sam had tried to slip his bonds, but had been unable to more than an inch. He was also trying his best not to look in the direction of the dead body, which had also begun to smell.

Mad Jack glanced towards him, not even bothering to get up from his chair. "Not for long, hopefully. They'll finish off taking the villagers to the dock and come looking for you. Then I'm going to strike."

"Uncle Joe said something about you being jealous," Sam played his trump card, "and I can understand. You were the older kid. But that doesn't mean you have to kill Joe, does it? I mean – you can leave us alone. There's no need to hurt us. Or the girls. I think –"

"I think you talk too much, Sam," Mad Jack pushed his chair back and stood up, "it must really annoy your friends." Pulling a rag from his pocket, Mad Jack tied it through Sam's mouth. The boy shook his head, trying to dislodge it.

Mad Jack muttered to himself as he went back to his game. The sooner he had Joe in his clutches, the better.

"Sam?" Fred called as they walked along the muddy street.

They heard banging and a muffled cry come from the house just up ahead. "That's the vicar's house," remarked Fred as they ran up, "we didn't see that guy by the dock earlier."

As soon as they flung open the door, they gasped in unison. Seeing the dead body on the floor, their gaze slowly moved upward towards Sam. Running forward to their friend, they heard the door slam behind them.

Turning, Joe and Fred saw Mad Jack standing there gleefully.

"Ah, Joseph. You finally arrive. I was bored of playing cards. The Book, if you please."

Joe could only stand still as he looked towards his hated uncle – and their enemy.

Mad Jack circled around them and stood by Sam, placing a firm hand onto his shoulder. "Hand it over, Joseph. I don't think I need to tell you what I might do if you don't."

Sam tried to say something behind the rag. Mad Jack looked at Joe with a raised eyebrow, waiting to see what his nephew would do.

Joe looked over at Fred, who nodded with a heavy heart. Then he looked at Sam, who for some reason was slowly shaking his head, begging him to refuse. Then Joe looked at Mad Jack, who seemed twitchy, both with excitement and frustration.

With shaking hands, Joe handed the Book towards Mad Jack.

Mad Jack immediately leapt forward, yanking the Book from Joe and tucking it under his arm, before holding his arm around Joe's neck.

"Hey! Let him go!" Fred shouted. But before he could do anything, Mad Jack held his staff out.

Green mist surrounded Fred and Sam as Joe tried pulling his uncle's arm away.

"What did you do to them?" Joe demanded. Mad Jack only snorted.

"Time mist. It will send them back to 2006 shortly. You and I, on the other hand, have a little journey ahead…" The staff glowed as the two of them suddenly disappeared.

Fred stared at the empty space where they had stood, before he went over to Sam and started untying the gag. "Don't worry, we'll go after them. Just have to call the girls when we get back."

As soon as Sam's mouth was free, he blurted out, "Jack wasn't planning on hurting me!"

Fred stopped in his tracks, confused. "What?"

"It's the truth," Sam explained, "Mad Jack wants Samantha to marry him!"

At that instant, the two of them were thrown over a hundred and fifty years in time, landing on Joe's bed. Fred stood up as Sam started to rub his sore wrists.

"Mad Jack wants Samantha?" Fred was disgusted.

"Well, not until she's old enough. He landed in 2112." Sam told him. He gave a small shudder as he imagined his great-granddaughter being Mad Jack's 'trophy'.

"Enough about _that_ ," Fred argued, "where did Jack go?"

 **Mad Jack's Lair**

Joe looked about him. They were in possibly the strangest room he had ever seen. And considering he had spent almost eighteen months time-travelling, that was definitely something.

Mad Jack's lair seemed to be filled with what looked like useless junk. A huge pile of random bits and pieces from all over time, with a fancy chair at the top next to an hourglass. The pile sat about ten feet high. It was amazing that it hadn't fallen over. Mad Jack must be keeping it up with magic.

"How do I know you sent them home?" Joe scowled.

"Loyal to the end," Mad Jack mused, "pity my brother wasn't like that." He tapped his staff on what was presumably a crystal ball, sticking out on an ironing board. It showed Joe's bedroom, where Fred and Sam were shouting loudly at each other. The time and date underneath on a copper plate showed that it was three minutes after they had gone back to Ireland.

"Satisfied, Joseph?" Mad Jack folded his arms.

"I guess," Joe rubbed the back of his head, "but why did you bring me here?" He was going to ask 'why didn't you kill me', but he didn't want to tempt his uncle.

"I need to study the Book more. For you to show me what you know. I know my brother has been showing you more since I last saw you. True, that has not been very long, but I saw him show you tricks. Now, show me."

Joe was adamant that he wouldn't.

He didn't care about himself any more. As long as Sam and Fred were safe, and Anna and Freddi and Samantha and…

Jodie.

He would never get out of here. Jodie would never be born. True, she could be annoying, but she was family. Distant family, but family.

He remembered when he had tried to peek at the Book, to see if he was going to marry someone good-looking. He'd only caught the name – Phoebe– before Uncle Joe had snatched the Book from him and slapped him around the face. It was the only time Uncle Joe had touched him. He had also never seen his uncle look as scary as he did then. It reminded him too much of Mad Jack. And that had made him shiver.

Now, Mad Jack was glaring at his nephew. He certainly didn't care that Joe was family. He'd tried to kill Joe numerous times.

Joe decided that he would try and show Mad Jack some simple tricks, presumably ones that his uncle already knew. Then he'd wait until he was asleep and do his best to call Uncle Joe.

 **2006, Brooklyn**

The boys had been arguing for a while, before there was a glow just above Joe's bed and the Book landed on the duvet. Staring at it for a moment, Sam opened the front cover.

"'Only here for ten minutes, please be quick.' What does that mean?" he asked.

"I don't know," Fred gabbled, "just get the girls."

Holding open the Book, Sam tapped the numbers to make the connection. He had to tell the girls. It was the only way they might be able to get help. Mad Jack could be anywhere.

Maybe Jodie would know where to find Uncle Joe. If she still existed…

No. Sam couldn't allow himself to think that.

 **2106, Brooklyn**

Jodie watched the screen as Joanne started to read out what was in front of her. It was strange, Jodie thought, that she was watching a video of someone who had died eighteen years earlier. True, she, Samantha and Freddi saw the boys all the time, but this was different.

Joanne had died back at the end of 2088. A confident, happy woman, there were numerous photographs around the house of both her and Joe, sometimes in different times.

Jodie had first seen a video of Joanne six years ago, at her fifth birthday, when she had first gone through time. It was uncanny how much she looked like Joanne; aside from Joanne's paler skin complexion, they could be twins.

Jodie had seen some other videos over the years. One, from shortly after her tenth birthday, would say that the boys were going to meet them on a specific date. But Joanne didn't know anything else.

Now, Jodie sat cross-legged as she slotted another video into the player.

" _He spoke very fondly of you, Jodie. He said that when he was a boy, he had all kinds of wonderful adventures through time. He didn't travel to the future so much in his early teens, though. The first time he took me through time was when he took the both of us back to New Year's Day in 1900. It was the first time you travelled as well. We were the same age._

" _I didn't understand until I got older, but he hated my mother. I can count the number of times that I saw her on my fingers and toes. Apparently, he only let me live with him and his family because one day my bloodline would produce you. I didn't even know he was my father until I was ten._

" _I remember my mother's funeral, when I was twelve years old. I felt nothing for her. Grandma, Joe's mother, took me along, but there was no-one else from my side of the family there. My mother died in prison, Jodie. I won't complicate things. All I'll say is that I was born in a prison hospital and I saw her be buried in a prison cemetery._

" _Joe was a great dad to me after he gave me the book. He said that I would give it to my child one day – your father James, although I knew nothing about what children I would have – and then to you. It's strange how I know about you when James has only recently married. He said he would get married before I go. Joe never married, so I never got to take part in a wedding close to me before. I don't think he ever wanted to. He didn't really love Phoebe. He said he didn't, when I was fourteen. I finally understood why he'd never even left his parents' house. Anna married, grew up, moved out and had children. But for my whole life, it was just me and Joe. Of course, I saw Sam's and Fred's weddings, but this was one where I was related to the groom._

" _Joe took me to places, both in our own time and in the past. He took me along with Sam and Fred, and later with their wives. One, weird family. Sometimes I thought Joe was overprotective, but he just cared for me. I guess the same way he cares for you. I remember when I wanted to go to Girl Scouts and he chaperoned the meeting. I was embarrassed, but in hindsight I recognised his intentions._

" _He's going to need his friends more than ever. Be ready, Jodie. Jack is coming and Joe will need help."_

The video ended. Jodie placed the recording back on the shelf.

James came into the room and looked over at his daughter. "Jodie, your friends are here," he sounded a bit nervous as he said this, "saying something about the Diner."

"Oh, sure, Dad," Jodie smiled, "just let me finish my homework. They're here for the family tree project."

When Samantha and Freddi sat down on Jodie's bed beside her, they analysed the family trees on the computer.

"Well," Freddi smirked, "we're probably the only ones in our year who interact with their great-grandfathers."

"I don't know," Samantha pointed out, "Icarus said his great-grandparents live in Kentucky."

"We're the only ones who interacted with them in their childhood," Jodie said as she typed in the last few dates for the project, "okay, I guess that's finished."

"Your dad's _fifty years_ older than you?" Freddi raised an eyebrow in slight disbelief.

Jodie scoffed. "Didn't you notice that his hair's gone grey?"

"I always thought that the stress of being in a house filled with women made him go like that." Freddi mumbled, before Jodie elbowed her.

Suddenly the Book opened and the three girls looked behind them. Seeing Fred and Sam's faces, they bounded over.

"Oh, thank god, he hasn't killed Joe yet." Sam gabbled when they came over.

A collective chill ran down the girls' spines. "What do you mean?" Jodie asked, wide-eyed.

Fred gabbled about what had happened to the three of them in 1846, only stopping to let Sam finish by saying, "…and Mad Jack's taken Joe off to who knows when, but he's going to kill him and the only reason he didn't kill me is because he thinks Samantha looks hot when she grows up." Sam trailed off, realising what he had just said to them.

"What?" Samantha grabbed two of her pigtails, not sure if she was going to vomit or faint. Jodie and Freddi looked slightly peeky.

"Look, is there any way we can find Uncle Joe?" Fred butted in, trying to quickly steer the conversation onto Joe's other uncle.

"We could possibly try Mabel's Diner," Freddi suggested to him, "We'll use the Book to get us there. You stay put and you'll be sent there as well."

As Jodie tapped on the Book, Samantha started squeaking. "My worst nightmare. Worse than base-jumping over Everest."

 **Mad Jack's Lair**

"Stop playing games, Joseph; show me!" Mad Jack was getting angry now.

All Joe had managed was to stop a vase being thrown at him, then showed Mad Jack how it worked. Mad Jack had been incredibly clumsy at first, letting (thankfully soft-tipped) darts hit Joe, but soon managed to stop time.

But now Mad Jack wanted more. He was just being too greedy.

Joe sat on the floor, arms over his face in defence, grasping at straws. "Please! I don't know that much! Get Uncle Joe; he'll help you!"

"Really? Now why would I let my brother show me when it's so much easier to intimidate you?" Mad Jack snarled, crossing his arms. Then he thought about it. "Well, maybe it will make things a lot simpler. I am going to sleep now, Joseph. Afterward, I will take you out of here and into my other lair."

"Other lair?" Joe raised an eyebrow as Mad Jack climbed the pile and sat down with a groan.

"Yes, my other lair! Where do you think I get food from?"

"I always thought you stole from Mabel's Diner," Joe shrugged, staring up at him, "what's this?"

He was holding something which had fallen off of the ironing board, from underneath. A framed picture of a young woman in an orange prom dress. Her long, black hair was done up in a bun and she was blushing slightly. Squinting at it, Joe felt his stomach turn.

"Is that…Samantha?" he grimaced, as Mad Jack sat up and listened.

"Yes," he snorted, "after Culloden, I ended up in 2112. She's going to be my Queen when I rule time."

"So," Joe's eyes slowly moved upward, "you weren't planning on killing Sam?"

"Not really," Mad Jack threw another dart in the air, for seemingly no reason, "but if your friends try anything stupid, such as go after me, I might get her a little early. Besides, they won't find me. Now shut up."

 **Mabel's Diner**

The five of them were sitting at a booth. Samantha was holding her sides, mumbling incoherently and staring ahead. Jodie held her chin in her hand and was flicking through the Book to try to find any way of contacting Uncle Joe. Freddi was sitting by her, watching. Sam and Fred had ordered milkshakes and were sipping.

"Are you sure?" Samantha seemed to snap out of the trance.

"Sorry," Sam replied, "but don't worry. If he tries to hurt you, I'll make sure he regrets it."

Samantha managed a small smile, but it disappeared quickly. She murmured, "I – thank you, great-grandfather."

"I think I found it," Jodie pointed, "'in case of emergency, call on the Family Tree'."

"What?" Fred tilted his head.

"Time Agent contacts. They might know where Uncle Joe is. How many are there, Freddi?"

"One in Constantinople," Freddi counted on her fingers, "at least four at the headquarters, you said one died in Ireland, Sam?"

Sam nodded, pushing his milkshake away.

"One in Colonial Australia," Jodie rolled off, "one in Edwardian England, one in the Revolutionary War, one in mid-twentieth century California, three that we've seen Mad Jack kill –"  
The five of them thought back to those occasions.

The first had been a very kind, if a little slow, woman named Hanna, who had been killed by Mad Jack in 1776, impaling her as a unicorn. Freddi still had nightmares about that instance.

The second had been a man named Tang, who was strangled in the palace of the Kubla Khan. The three boys had seen it happen, although Mad Jack hadn't seen them.

The third had been in a library in Brooklyn in the 1980s. Mad Jack had tossed him from a balcony onto a concrete floor. The girls had never even known the man's name.

"I think there's three in the Renaissance Period, but I'm not exactly sure where," Samantha finished, "one in Mexico during the Alamo, remember, Fred? We went there with Joe two months ago. And – one in Ancient Greece, stuck as Medusa – please don't ask – one in Scotland during Culloden, but I'm not sure if he's still there. And the last one is in China during the Opium Wars."

"So, who do we call?" Fred asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jodie held the Book up, pointing at a picture of Uncle Joe. "I just hope he answers."

As soon as Jodie pressed the picture, they heard the sound of an old-fashioned telephone ringing. Then Uncle Joe's voice came out from the Book.

"Oh, Jodie! Hello! I'm afraid that I'm trying to perform with Houdini, so I might –"

"Uncle Joe, we've got big problems," Jodie interrupted, "Mad Jack has Joe."

There was a quick silence, before Uncle Joe told them, "Wait there."

 **Mad Jack's Lair**

Joe leaned across the desk as far as he could, holding the tips of his fingers out for the Book. Groaning, he touched the very edge of it, underneath Mad Jack's arm as the man slept.

Then he fell.

Crashing onto the pile by the throne, the noise woke up Mad Jack. Noticing that his nephew had tried to grab the Book, Mad Jack snarled.

"You imbecile!" his eyes were full of fire. "Just what did you think you were doing?"

"I want to go home!"

Joe didn't care how pathetic he sounded. He didn't even care if Mad Jack kept the Book. All he wanted was to go home, to be safe.

But Mad Jack was having none of that. Grabbing Joe by the wrist and pulling him to his feet, he snarled straight into the boy's face.

"Looks like I'll have to go somewhere where I can sleep without you interfering."

 **2088, Brooklyn**

 _Joanne looked at the camera again for her next video._

" _The boys will call you soon, Jodie," she spoke loudly and clearly, "and you'll have to leave quickly. I will not say which date that is, just in case, but I will tell you that Mad Jack is planning on going to a prison colony in Australia. Pity he didn't stay._

" _Prison always scares me, Jodie. I went into one with my grandmother – Joe's mother – to see my mother. Phoebe. I never touched my mother. I just saw her behind glass. Joe met her at Girl Scouts. I used to think that meant he attended." Joanne gave a small giggle._

" _That's another thing I don't like – Girl Scouts. Not any Girl Scout or organization in general, but they left a sour taste in Joe's mouth, ever since he was fourteen years old. Joe never let me go to after-school clubs when I was a child. I didn't know why he did this until I was much older. He only told me after Phoebe died._

" _I'm glad I don't look like her. I think that would have made things worse. She was blonde and wore her hair in a ponytail. She was also stick-thin, like those weird dolls Anna had. I took after Joe. I used to have black, curly hair. Just like you do. Aside from the fact that my skin tone was closer to Joe's, I looked identical to you as a girl._

" _Phoebe kept saying that she loved Joe. That she loved me. But my grandmother called Phoebe names, even in the prison, right to her face. Phoebe told me that she wanted to be free and be Joe's wife and my mommy. That made my grandmother livid. She told her that that would never happen in a million years and that Phoebe was a female dog and she had better shut up because prison guards were listening._

" _Do you want to know what Great-Grandma Phoebe did? She only smiled that perfect little smile. That's the one thing I inherited from her._

" _I didn't smile for weeks._

" _But Phoebe was only important for one thing – my conception in the Girl Scouts' building on the day of the soccer match. After that she played no part in my life. I'm actually glad it was that way. Phoebe was a psychopath. I was told that she used to kill cats and dogs when she was a girl, string up their dead bodies like meat from butcher's hooks. Phoebe also sat in front of them the same way a little kid watches a TV programme._

 _"Since Phoebe said she wanted to be my 'mommy', I associated that word with disgust for a few years. People keep saying about wicked stepmothers giving princesses poisoned apples and sending children to die in the woods, but the fact is, in quite a lot of the original fairy tales, it was the birth mother who did these things. I could relate to that._

" _I'm an old woman. I'm seventy-eight years old and I'm not well enough to time-travel. I haven't been very well for a long time. People said that losing Joe broke my heart. I guess it has._

" _But I'm not going to give up on making these videos. You shouldn't give up, either, Jodie. Because Joe – Joe is out there, lost and afraid, and he's counting on you. Go to the Time Agents. You'll find out more there."_

Jodie took out the videotape and sat back.

She'd used the TV at the back of Mabel's Diner, paying about two hundred 2106 dollars to use it. She'd had the video on her lap when they had warped and now it seemed like the perfect thing to look at for clues.

Uncle Joe was now sitting with the others, groaning about his brother. As Jodie came out, she heard him saying, "He was always jealous of me. He wanted the attention. And well, he did something awful when we were only kids."

"What?" Sam asked, as Jodie came up to the table.

Uncle Joe fiddled with the straw on Sam's milkshake for a couple of seconds, before he sighed and pulled his glowing pen out.

"He – he did something that sent the whole Time Agency after him. Time Pages, Time Squires, Time Knights, all of them. I – I'm not certain about telling you; you're so young."

"Why has the pen written 'warp wizard' on the table?" Freddi pointed. The other children all looked at it before Uncle Joe frowned at the pen.

"Bad pen! Get back here!" he held his hand out and the pen flew back into his pocket. "Anyway," he gabbled, "we'd better get somewhere. Try the –"

"Time Agents," Jodie finished, "Joanne said so."

"Joanne?" Fred raised an eyebrow. "Who's Joanne?"

Before Jodie could answer, Samantha asked, "She's your dead grandma, isn't she?"

"Samantha!" Jodie snapped through gritted teeth.

"Yes," Uncle Joe held his head on his chin, looking remarkably like his nephew as he did so, "Joanne is – Joe's kid."

"You do understand that name is incredibly corny?" Fred teased, but Uncle Joe had had enough.

Standing up, he walked over to one of the doors by the counter. "Come on, children. It's about 'time' I show you the Time Agency."

 **Mad Jack's Other Lair**

Mad Jack scanned the area as soon as they had arrived. Hiding inside what looked like an abandoned hut, he had decided to set up traps.

Joe had asked where they were, to which Mad Jack had simply grunted and locked the door behind him as he left. Since catching Joe about to prise the Book back, Mad Jack had decided to cuff his prisoner's wrists and ankles. Meaning that he was perfectly comfortable with leaving Joe in here by himself.

Joe shuffled along the floor to take a closer look at a discarded shred of newspaper on the stone floor. Squinting at the tiny print, Joe could work out that it was from 1942. It didn't look too old, either, suggesting that wherever they were, it was in the mid-1940s.

It was also quite cold, Joe could summarise. That meant that the two of them were likely somewhere in the northern hemisphere and possibly during winter. The few items inside the hut were a bed with a sad-looking mattress, a chest of drawers with one missing and a piece of string stretched across the top of the window. Someone had used this hut and used it recently.

He wasn't completely useless, Joe congratulated himself.

But his happiness was short-lived as Mad Jack came back inside, carrying a shovel.

Joe tensed, causing Mad Jack to laugh.

"It's not for you, Joseph!" he chuckled, "I just set up a few pits, just in case your friends turn up."

"Is this all you can come up with?" Joe scoffed, "Bait and traps?"

Mad Jack scowled nastily. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to use magic words or a stupid pen when my brother dear turns up. Oh, no. I'm just going to shoot him. Makes things much easier. I should have done it myself years ago. Saved me the trouble of twenty years of bickering through time."

"Twenty years?" Joe queried.

Mad Jack nodded. "Twenty years. Seeing as we have a lot of time – heh, heh – to wait, I'll tell you a bit more about your family history."

Mad Jack sat down on the floor, only seven feet from his nephew. The way he talked made Joe certain that his mad uncle had been waiting to tell this story for a while.

"I received the Book when I was ten, the same age as you were. I was a rather naughty child, or rather, brother dear said I was. I had been handed space and time on a silver plate – quite literally – so I thought it only right that I should control whatever I wanted.

"But your Uncle Joe wouldn't have that. I managed to trap him in the Himalayas, being chased by yetis. Don't look at me like that; you've probably wondered what's out there. If myths are true. Anyway, your Uncle Joe told the Warp Wizard…"

"Wait," Joe interrupted, to Mad Jack's annoyance, "there was another Warp Wizard?"

"An annoying Time Agent fellow by the name of Jeremiah Hedgewing. British. Stuffy. Obsessed with stuffed owls and clocks. Anyway, my brother was nine and I was – let me see – just turned eleven. But when Hedgewing found that I had nearly killed my brother, he gave the Book to him instead.

"I was angry. The Book was mine! I was the elder brother, it belonged to me! Who was Hedgewing to argue? Now, the Book is very ancient. I think it may have been the first book in existence. The furthest we can trace it back is to ancient India, at the time of the Vedas. It was handed through the generations across centuries, millennia. Always handed to the eldest son – or daughter, if they had no sons. It was mine by birthright!

"Anyway, I confronted the Warp Wizard about this, not long after my brother had become a Time Squire, at around thirteen years old. I had spent four years living out of a trailer, scouring libraries and ancient digs. But I finally found the Warp Wizard in the Himalayas, not far from where I had tried to kill my brother, albeit in another time.

"I argued that it belonged to me. He said that my brother was far more lenient. I just said he was insane. But Jeremiah told me that the Book would always refuse me. I became angry. He had been in the middle of a trance when I came back later. I do not believe he was on the earthly plain when I shoved a katana through his chest.

"I thought you would squirm, nephew. He died instantly, peacefully. But he had been looking at the future of the next Warp Wizard in his trance. I don't know how they're chosen. Some say it's random, like the universe. My brother believed it was reincarnation, like they say that the Dalai Lama is Buddha. But whatever the reason, when the Time Pages and Squires and Knights had been gathered at Mabel's Diner, when they looked into a crystal ball – not dissimilar to the crystal ball in my lair, Joseph – they saw that my nephew would be the next Warp Wizard.

"My brother is intrigued. He was horrified, of course, especially when he was handed all of the significant events in your future – and one in particular even horrified me – though I tape-recorded the event when I attached it underneath a tabletop – but he started to make his odd little gadgets. His pen and his watch and his ridiculous top hat. I learnt all this from when I found a Time Knight. She was as white as a sheet when I had finished tormenting her.

"I learnt as much as I could about you. I saw myself first meeting you at ten years old, which meant I could not interfere with you until after your tenth birthday. But after that, visions were cloudy. I could hurt you, kill if the circumstances call for it. The Book is mine and you and my pesky, weird brother will never have it, mark my words!"

The hut was suddenly still as Joe took this all in. True, he had felt pressure knowing that he would defeat Mad Jack in a fight across time – which he was certain he was undergoing right now – however, learning what Jack had done to get here was blood-curdling and terrifying.

"I know about other family members," Mad Jack continued after a lingering silence, "my descendants who may or may not come, depending on what I do. Your daughter, Joanne. Her son James. Your pesky great-granddaughter, Jodie. Family is very important, I am absolute on the subject. I can see why your friend Sam was horrified at the idea of my choice in wedding Samantha."

"Yeah," Joe felt queasy, "why her, again?"

Mad Jack scoffed, using his staff to conjure up an image of what he had seen in 2112. Samantha, standing tall, her hair loose inside of pigtails. "When she has grown into a woman, she is quite attractive. If you live, you will know, one day. You won't be able to control some areas when it sees someone it likes. Believe me, you won't. What you do with the rest of your body is up to you, but most people recommend controlling yourself, instead of attacking like a wild animal."

This seemed to be the most awkward and bizarre conversation Joe had ever had.

Mad Jack saw the blush and waved his hand, the vision dispersing. "But enough for now. The first trap – and I know it is where they will land first, since my brother will have looked in my lair – will give off an alarm inside the staff, so for now, I will rest. Won't do to have my brother arrive when I'm irritable. Or when you've frozen to death, mind."

He used his staff to make two blankets appear. Sitting down on the bed, he flung one of the blankets at Joe. "Make yourself comfortable. It's going to be a _long_ night."

 **Time Agency**

The door didn't open to another room, but rather what appeared to be a misty and dull place.

What looked like Chinese pavilions stood out everywhere. Some were small, only built for a couple of people, some of them were enormous. The whole area looked as if it had been plucked from a Chinese garden, as well. There were tiled pathways and trees surrounding the pavilions. The sky overhead – and it was odd to all the children but Jodie that there was a sky inside – was not raining down, but looked as if it may at any moment.

Three men wearing robes of different shades of red were meditating. One sat in a pavilion, one sat on the branches of a tree and one was floating in mid-air. A middle-aged woman with dark hair, wearing a lime-green robe, was using a broomstick to sweep up some leaves.

"Ah, hello!" she spoke cheerfully, "Where is Joseph today?"

"Daisy, I need to tell you something. Very important." Uncle Joe walked up to her as the children stood in their tracks.

"Is it going to rain?" Fred asked.

"No," Jodie replied, her arms crossed, "it's like this all the time."

"Foggy and cold?" Sam rubbed his arms, as Freddi followed suit.

Jodie nodded. "I come here sometimes to meditate. Sometimes we come with Joe. He doesn't really like this place much, either. Oh, and we brought Anna last time. She didn't like this much, either."

"Anna!" Fred's eyes grew wide. "We forgot about her! We're babysitting her!"

"I'm sure we can pick her up when we've finished here," Samantha tried to reassure him, "she'll be fine."

Uncle Joe and Daisy came over. Daisy was in deep thought.

"Daisy said that this is very serious. Mad Jack has been wanted by the Time Agency for twenty years and now he's killed five of their agents."

"Five?" Sam asked, slightly horrified, "Who else did he murder?"

"An agent in Constantinople," Daisy sighed, "after he tortured her for information. It's bad enough anyway that this is a risky business without him murdering us. Twenty years ago, there were over a hundred and fifty of us. Now the Agency is just guarded by me and these three."

"Isn't there _something_ we can do?" Fred asked, desperate, "Mad Jack has already kidnapped Joe. Trust me, if this is Joe's Fight Through Time, as you so call it, where he becomes the Warp Wizard, I'm backing him all the way."

"Me too." Sam piped up, although he wasn't exactly sure why he said that.

The girls all nodded.

Daisy wringed her hands. Turning to Jodie and Uncle Joe, she instructed, calmly and firmly, "Go to 2006. Get Anna Arthur and bring her here. We'll keep her safe." As Uncle Joe started to disappear in green mist, holding Jodie's hand, Daisy glanced at the other four children. "We're not entirely sure where Mad Jack is. We've narrowed down our search to Colonial Australia, Edwardian England, Valley Forge and 1967 America. At the very least, this is where he struck after abducting Joe. We were able to track his movements – and no, we can't intercept immediately and besides, we've only just managed to work out who it was – and we tracked one from between 1846 Ireland and his lair, which we know is outside time and nearly inaccessible unless using the correct magic, that he had someone else with him."

"Joe." Samantha gasped, saying out loud what everyone was thinking.

Daisy nodded.

"But then, he went somewhere else. Mad Jack must have been using strong magic, because we couldn't find where he went. But we guess that it could be one of those four places."

"Well, let's go!" Fred snapped, irritably. Daisy shook her head.

"I'm sorry, you have to undergo the proper procedures here first. So his magic won't affect you."

Daisy held a flashlight out, gesturing to the garden. "If you want to help communicate across time via the Book, you'll have to undergo a difficult process."

"Anything," Fred begged, "just name it."

Sam, Fred, Samantha and Freddi were standing in a pool with the water up to their shoulders. All of them wore swimming costumes, but it barely helped with the freezing cold.

The weather was about twelve degrees Celsius, according to a barometer on the side of a pavilion, and dark grey clouds were looming above nearby. These were even murkier than the other ones. The turquoise water in the pool itself was about sixteen degrees Celsius. The four children stood in a row, with Freddi on the very left and Fred on the very right.

"I hate you." Sam glared out of the corner of his eye at Fred.

Daisy had come back, carrying a stopwatch. "You just have to stand here until the water turns emerald green," she assured them, "but that can take hours, sometimes days."

"I made a mistake," Sam scowled, "I _really_ hate you."

 **2088, Brooklyn**

 _Joanne sighed and grabbed onto her grey curls as she spoke. It was a habit that she thought she'd grown out of a long time ago. But now that she had so much on her shoulders, she was as terrified as a little girl again._

" _I don't like thinking about Uncle Fred and Uncle Sam in danger because of Joe. He was a pretty careless kid when things came to it, he didn't mean to get them – or you girls – hurt. Maybe that's one of the reasons he stopped time-travelling in his early teens. The other – I know…. That beast was not my mother. Beast inside the beauty, Jodie? She treated Joe very well. She was always like that. Nice until she found no other use for you. Good thing Joe never saw her in a temper. She slapped another boy on the face and then attacked his upper body with tap shoes."_

 _She held her hands together and rubbed one down her face before she carried on where she had left off._

" _I remember the last time I time-travelled, Jodie. I went to India in the 1920s. I went with Joe and Anna. I was at his will reading the other week, Jodie. Your mother – my word, she looks so young here, especially next to James – had a specific instruction. The lawyer looked very surprised when he read it. 'Your third daughter is to be named Jodie.' I can tell that Uncle Fred and Uncle Sam looked as if they'd start giggling like kids._

" _I know I'm not long for this world, Jodie. I'd like to say I've done well. I'm an old woman. Not as old as some people can get in 2088, but I've considered my life to be amazing. Now, Jodie, I'm going to be there when you stop Mad Jack. There's no need to panic, I know that you're going to meet me in the cemetery first. The cemetery where my mother, your great-grandmother – in the loosest sense of the term – is buried. You're going to come across me there, so there isn't any need to aim for the cemetery. At least it's better than my cemetery." The woman read the message aloud. "Joanne Arthur, 2010 - 2088, beloved daughter, mother and grandmother._

" _You're going to go to Colonial Australia, with Great-Uncle Joe and Anna. You're going to be fine." Joanne sniffed, "don't worry, honey."_

 **1810, Australia**

Anna and Uncle Joe looked around as they landed on what seemed to be a dock. Looking at Jodie beside them, who had immediately shut her Book, looking around nervously, Anna glared at her.

"Jodie," she demanded, "did you bring us here? You said we were going to the Time Agency."

"I'm sorry," Jodie gabbled, holding the Book under her arm, looking between Anna and Uncle Joe, "I just wanted to find Joe."

"Jodie," Uncle Joe didn't sound angry, but rather, disappointed, "I know you want to help, but the first thing we need to do is to get Anna somewhere safe."

Jodie didn't say anything. She knew that she should follow Joanne's instructions to the letter. Ever since Jodie, through nosiness and connecting the dots, figured out exactly how Joe and Joanne had suffered emotionally during the girl's early life, she had chosen to watch more of the videos.

And now she knew exactly what to do.

Uncle Joe led the two girls along a rocky path through what appeared to be corn fields. All around them, convicts were hard at work, cutting at the corn and gathering it in bales by the side of the path.

Uncle Joe approached a man dressed as a prison guard. The man, who was short and rather stout, shook Uncle Joe's hand before addressing himself to the girls. "Colin, ladies," he smiled at them, "Time Agent for Colonial Australia. Worked as a prison guard here for ten years."

"Hi, I'm Anna, and this is Jodie," Anna introduced herself, "we're looking for Mad Jack."

Colin pursued his lips, nodding. "I know. Your uncle filled me in before he arrived. Don't worry; I've already put out that there might be an escaped convict in the area. All the guards are looking out. And quite a number of the convicts working out here were told, especially as if they give him in, I said they could get extra rations for a month. They're a greedy bunch, these guys. But some only stole food or cutlery or pickpocketed because life's dreadful in Blighty."

"Blighty?" Anna asked, puzzled.

Colin gave a hearty laugh. "Britain, little lady. I guess being among old-fashioned folks changed me somewhat."

"And Joe?" Anna asked. Jodie held her arm around the younger girl, pulling her close.

"I told everyone that the 'escaped convict' may be travelling with a hostage. Don't worry. If Mad Jack's anywhere around here, he'll be brought in." Colin tried his best to reassure the girls.

As the four of them made their way to the prison barracks, Uncle Joe asked Colin, "Has there been any evidence that my brother had been here at all?"

Colin nodded. "A few months ago, a servant from the local village found a cave with some strange stuff inside. Thought it belonged to a runaway or an Aborigine. There was certainly proof that someone had been there for a while. But when I came by, I saw items not from this time. I confiscated them and hid them under my bed."

In the room that Colin shared with other guards, they watched as he retrieved them from a locked box. Jodie, Anna and Uncle Joe watched as he removed a digital watch, tinned food dating from the 1980s and, strangely, a mortar and pestle with some crushed powder.

"What type of powder is in there?" Uncle Joe asked, as Colin set the box on top of his bed.

"If I'm right," the stout man breathed heavily, "eucalyptus leaves, cat's paw –"

"Not a real cat?" Anna squealed, to which Uncle Joe shook his head.

"No, Anna, it's a type of wildflower. Go on, Colin."

" – as well as flannel flower. There's also quite a few plants crushed inside that I wasn't able to work out at first, but I used my microscope to find out that they are not from this time or continent."

"You have a microscope?" Jodie asked him.

"Yes," Colin answered, "helps me work out how to make a potion. All Time Knights can make potions, if they train hard enough. Now, aside from flora, there were also raven beaks and mermaid tears. You know what that means."

Uncle Joe held his hand by his chin, again resembling his nephew as he thought deeply.

"What?" Anna didn't want to sound annoying, but she hated being left out and when adults know something a child doesn't, it can be irritating.

"Shapeshifting potion," Uncle Joe looked at the girls, "Mad Jack will possibly shapeshift into anything he wants. Look, we'd better get back now."

"OK," Jodie held the Book out and started pressing on the page.

Joanne better have sent me here for something.

 **Time Agency**

"How long have we been waiting?" Sam moaned loudly. He felt exhausted, but at the same time, it was as if he was floating on air. Maybe the effects of being outside of time – as well as whatever could be in this pool – made him feel this way.

Freddi shrugged. "I don't think it could be too long. We just have to stay here until we feel ready."

"Well when exactly is that?" Fred scowled. His great-granddaughter just giggled.

"Until you start to see things. Illusions, mainly. Anything that appears significant. That's what Jodie said that happened when she was here with Daisy. She saw orange Catherine wheels and said that she her cat was walking on the water."

"So, basically, we're here until we start hallucinating," Sam narrowed his eyes in her direction, "in a freezing cold pool."

"Not a hallucination," Freddi replied, "just until you see something that looks important to you. It could be something that scares you, makes you feel joyful or anything that your heart desires. Jodie said that she stood here for two, two and a half days, watching chocolate raisins dissolve in –"

"I think that's enough," Sam felt queasy, "why's there a sunrise over there?"

"I can't see anything," Samantha squinted, "all I see is a light mist. But it's not like the rest; this one's sky-blue."

"I see a red dragon climbing about the bridge." Fred pointed up towards the bridge, but instead of feeling scared, he felt at peace.

"It's dark," Freddi almost whispered, "there are candles all around the edge of the pool. Quite a lot of them are in candleholders. But the sky's gone dark."

"I think it's started." Samantha told the others, but they barely heard her.

Sam suddenly found himself looking at chemical toilets. Endless math papers scattered about the water, but none of them seemed to get wet. The sky above showed the whole Milky Way, but the constellations were now re-enacting their tales. They enchanted him with their stories he had poured over in fifth grade.

Fred was looking across to the bridge, where long reeds opened up and a soccer ball rolled out. As he looked at it slide over the top of the water, he heard the sounds of his brother shouting at him. Fred yearned to yell back that he was doing his best, so Mike could shut up, but most of his mind was trying to force him to stay quiet. Sounds of baseball games echoed around him and the invisible players were telling him all about the rules of ancient games.

Freddi, on the other hand, could see tall, barren trees inside the water, with a dark night sky behind them, hills in the background. She could feel the cold wind blow all around her and it looked as if she were kicking her feet beneath her. Her eyes glancing down, she saw that her legs had turned scaly and kicking as one. Giggling, she splashed her mermaid tail about, without a care in the world.

Samantha noticed an underwater ledge, with all of the Pacific sea life swimming about. She could see Easter Island down there, with the language being written onto the ledge. Samantha wanted to turn her head about in order to read it, but then it all seemed to merge into one and became a much worse image. Mad Jack, holding his hand out for her, standing by a stone fireplace, out from the water. "Be mine, Samantha, or you will burn!" She could feel the flames licking at her and she wanted to kick her legs about and scream, but she felt paralyzed.

Daisy came back to see the four of them standing in emerald green water. Smiling to herself, she knew they were ready. Then she saw that Samantha looked absolutely terrified.

Daisy groaned inwardly. Sometimes this happened. When they underwent meditation, they could see anything. Good visions, visions of what was going to come, childish fantasies, but now and again something appeared that terrified the subject.

Daisy tugged at her bracelet and her dress robes turned into a lime green swimming costume. She waded down the stone steps and toward the children. Placing her hand on Samantha's forehead, she held a triangular green pendant by the girl's Third Eye.

"Relax," Daisy soothed, "this can't hurt you."

Samantha breathed in and out slowly, closing her eyes again as the magic took effect.

Later, when they had all opened their eyes, Daisy started to ask what they had seen. When she came to Samantha, Daisy calmly explained that she didn't have to say anything that she didn't want to.

"I saw Mad Jack," Samantha mumbled softly, but they all heard it, "he said that I would be his."

Sam scowled horribly and shook with rage in the water. Fred listened to his friend muttering under his breath, only catching the words 'removing' and 'can-opener'.

Freddi put her hand on her friend's shoulder to comfort her. "Thanks." Samantha mumbled, holding it in hers.

Daisy then explained.

"What you all saw was from your subconscious. Your passions, hopes, dreams, fears. It's actually good that you took only seven hours here. Joe was here for a day before he saw something."

At the mention of their friend, all four fidgeted nervously. Daisy tried her best to draw attention away from the subject.

"This helps you focus. The pool is made of magical water. I'm not sure where it comes from. Some of us said Atlantis. Others say this was where the Biblical flood drained into. Or the lake from Arthurian folklore. Whatever the answer is, this is where the Time Pages go for meditation to become Time Squires. You're lucky that you came in here immediately."

"Lucky?" Freddi scoffed a little. "I haven't been this cold since I was on the _Titanic_."

Sam grimaced. Wearing your great-granddaughter's dress was not something you wanted to be reminded of.

"It has to be cold, sorry," Daisy told them as her swimming costume turned back into the dress, "but we have to hurry."

The three children stood under the bridge as Samantha was lying on her back in the water, only around five feet from them.

"What's she doing?" Fred asked Daisy, who was holding a bucket of green water above the girl. Samantha was looking very nervous.

"Just a preparation to communicate with the Book across time. To try and find Joe. Now, Samantha," Daisy instructed her calmly, "just breathe in and out slowly. Eyes closed. You won't float off."

"OK," Samantha mumbled, before she obeyed.

In front of the others, Samantha began to glow a faint green. Daisy didn't appear alarmed, so the others didn't move forward.

Daisy carried on speaking. "Now, Samantha, repeat the first names of seven of your ancestors, father to son, mother to daughter, ending with your parent."

"Andrew," Samantha spoke in a quiet whisper, in a voice that sounded muffled and far away, "Rebecca, Deborah, Walter, Sam, Seth, Sadie."

Daisy slowly began to pour the water from the bucket onto Samantha's face. Samantha didn't flinch. Perhaps she was unable to feel it.

"Now," Daisy instructed, "tell me what you see."

"Mist," Samantha frowned in concentration, "green mist, everywhere. I put my hand in it and my hand disappears."

"You're nearly there," Daisy soothed, "almost in the dream state. Think of Joe. Visualise him clearly."

Samantha felt very cold. She thought that she would shiver, but she didn't, to her surprise. Thinking about Joe, Samantha did her best to try and visualise him in front of her.

Then everything changed. The mist faded and she was looking into darkness. She wondered if something had gone wrong, but then Samantha saw a crack of light from the left.

Realising that she was looking out through the Book into a drawer, she called out, "Joe?"

Then she heard his voice. "Samantha? Where are you?"

Her heart leapt. "Joe! I'm speaking through the Book. I'm – I think I'm outside time. Listen, can you get the Book out?"

"I can't," he groaned, "Mad Jack cuffed me. We're somewhere very cold. Listen, he said he'd dug some traps and I don't know when he'll be back."

"Look, Joe, we're coming. The five of us and Uncle Joe. We're all coming. We're going to save you."

Joe answered, "Thanks." Then there was the sound of a key turning. "I think he's back!"

The connection was lost and Samantha's eyes opened. Daisy took the bucket away.

"What did you see?" Sam asked. Samantha looked towards her friends.

"You didn't hear me?"

"No," he shook his head in response, "you went very quiet for a moment."

Samantha reeled off what she had heard. Daisy looked slightly alarmed.

"It sounds as if Mad Jack's going about time. If he's leaving Joe alone someplace, then that means that wherever he's off to, he doesn't want to have to drag a hostage along. He could be doing anything."

"So where could Joe be?" Freddi asked her.

"Sadly, I think that he could be anywhere," Daisy sighed, "best guess, Mad Jack has him stored away somewhere uninhabited. The ripples in the bucket were very slow and the water had turned dark purple in the middle, so I'd say he could be within a hundred years either way of your last location, but a long way away geographically."

"We were last at his house in Brooklyn in 2006," Sam pointed out, "so he could be anywhere a hundred years in either direction –"

" – but nowhere near Brooklyn." Fred finished.

"I'll check Mad Jack's known haunts," Daisy said, "you wait here."

As she left the pool, Sam called after her, "Can we get changed?" But she didn't answer.

"Samantha," Sam waded in the water up to her, "you do know that I'll always look after you, right?"

"I know," she sighed, "but it just scares me. What if he goes after me? He's clearly obsessed. I know he's not going to hurt me, but I –"

Sam placed his hand on her cheek and turned her face towards his. Looking into her eyes, he told her, slowly and firmly, "Listen, I will never let him get anywhere near you. Even if it means I have to climb a mountain in a snowstorm, in my pajamas, I'll always look after you."

"Oh, thanks, great-granddad!" Samantha wrapped her arms around his chest and buried her head close.

"Don't mention it." Sam squeaked, feeling very awkward.

Daisy looked at the crystal ball inside one of the pavilions. Holding her pendant over it, she tried to concentrate. trying to detect Mad Jack's last trip through time, she instead found herself glimpsing the vision that Uncle Joe had placed inside. this particular vision had been one of his fears, to stay there as a reminder.

A quick glimpse of a blonde woman with her hair in a ponytail, wearing the Girl Scout uniform, sitting in a cinema seat, giggling wildly.

" _Oh, Joe, you're growing into such a nice young man. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell your mom that you went to the cinema with me instead of going to summer school. Just as long as we get back in time for you to pick up Anna. I'll drive you back._ "

Then the young woman turned into Medusa, snarling horribly.

Daisy frowned, Phoebe Harding pushed to one side as the Time Agent focused. She managed to see that Mad Jack had flown from _somewhere_ to Edwardian England.

 **Mad Jack's Other Lair**

Joe woke with a jolt, panting and sweating. He tried to lift his hand to feel in front of him, but found they were still cuffed.

Everything flooded back to him. Looking about him in the darkness, Joe heard Mad Jack talking in his sleep. He couldn't work out what Jack was muttering, but whatever it was, it was sure to be unpleasant.

As soon as his wicked uncle had come back, he had taken the cuffs off of him, while holding the Bowie knife. Joe had been about to ask what was going on when Mad Jack had shoved a bowl of tomato soup in front of him and flung a spoon onto the floor.

"I thought you were hungry," he had said, creepily, "I can't have my brother saying I'm a bad host."

"I'm not hungry." Joe murmured, turning to his side and looking at the stone floor.

Mad Jack made a 'hrmph' noise and instead sat on the bed, folding his arms and watching Joe like a hawk. Joe had eventually given in, daring to turn his back while he ate. When he had finished, Mad Jack made the bowl and spoon disappear with his staff, before saying that he was going for a walk.

Despite Joe's protests, Mad Jack reapplied the cuffs, although he fastened his nephew's hands in front this time. "Not that it will matter," he told Joe, "I'm taking the Book with me and I'm locking the door."

All Joe had done was do his best to pull the blanket around him and close his eyes, hoping that if he drifted off, this ordeal would be over quickly. Instead, he woke up long after the sun set and was completely trapped.

"What? What is it?" he heard Mad Jack groaning. A green light came from his staff as he held it out in front. Seeing his nephew looking back at him, bewildered, he groaned. "Don't do that! I don't want to have to make you sleep in the boathouse."

"I'm sorry." Joe gabbled, although he definitely wasn't.

Mad Jack just got up and grumbled that since he was up anyway, he'd better look and see if anything had gotten into the traps.

Joe lay back down and squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted Uncle Joe. He wanted Sam and Fred and the girls. He wanted Mom. He even wanted Anna. But most of all, he wanted to go home.

Mad Jack woke up again when the dawn entered into the room through the filthy window.

Sitting up and stretching, he picked his staff up from where it had lain next to him on the bed. Glancing at the drawer where he had hidden the Book, he sat up straight. He wouldn't bother getting it out now. He needed to try to force Joe to show him what he knew – if he knew any more than he was letting on. The kid was tough.

Mad Jack curled his beard in his fingers as he thought about this. This plan required a lot of cunning. If his brother had fallen for it – and Mad Jack was almost certain that he had – he would have gone to one of the places that the Time Agents would have tracked him to. Or sent the children there. His stash had gone from his hideaway in Australia. Not that that had been a good hideout, as the heat was spoiled food.

So, it seemed, one of two things would happen. Either he would seize one of the other children (not Sam or Samantha; Joe would never believe that Mad Jack could bring himself to hurt either of them) or he would bring his dear brother here. Then Mad Jack would force one or the other of his irritating relatives to show him how the Book worked.

Mad Jack smirked as he thought this over. Glancing quickly at Joe, still asleep on the stone floor, Mad Jack held his staff as he warped through time.

 **2088, Brooklyn**

 _Joanne held a picture close to the camera._

" _This is me, Joe and Anna at Anna's high school graduation. I look so tiny there! Anyway," she put the picture back onto the adjacent table, "if I'm right, you're watching this video on December 17th 2106."_

 _Her face fell._

" _Jodie, I have no idea what life is like in 2106. Exactly what you learn in school. How old you're supposed to be when you learn…Thing is, Joe's going to stop time-travelling in the fall of 2010. He won't travel again until he's twenty. Anna told me everything._

" _I have no idea how many more videos I'm going to make. I'm letting Great-Uncle Joe watch all of these first. But if you are old enough, I'll say right now._

" _Joe was – disappointed, to say the least, when he heard that Phoebe was pregnant. I've never thought of her as my mother. Only Phoebe Harding. Anna told me that when Joe found out, Sam and Fred happened to be over. She saw Great-Uncle Joe arrive and took him inside. Joe was angry; he shut himself away in his room. Anna said that Fred, Sam and Great-Uncle Joe waited outside for him. Sam knocked on the door and asked if they could come in._

" _They did and Anna said that what happened was one of the most important conversations in the space-time continuum. There – there are so many things that Joe sacrificed to keep time going. They talked to him. About Phoebe. About the baby. Me. Anna said that Joe said 'rude words' and called Phoebe horrible names._

" _But she heard him ask Great-Uncle Joe 'if it was true'. There was a silence. He said 'yes'. Joe was screaming and hitting the walls and asking why this happened to him."_

 _Joanne stopped and twisted her shawl around her fingers, holding it close to her nose and mouth and sniffing._

" _Jodie, if I could have gone back and made it different, to stop him from suffering, believe me, I would. And – poor girl – Anna blamed herself. Joe met Phoebe through Anna's Girl Scout group. They used to sneak off when he should have been going to summer school. I wonder if she ever thought she loved him. He certainly didn't. He just saw her as a good friend._

" _After they'd been sneaking off from Girl Scouts and summer school for six weeks, every Wednesday, she met Fred and Sam at a basketball court. Fred was throwing the ball about, Sam was trying to write about the history of soccer in his notebook._

" _Joe said, 'Hey guys, this is Phoebe.' And he said that he was bunking off from summer school to go places with her. Sam said something about that being very bad, but of course, they didn't listen to him. Fred said to Sam once the two had left that Phoebe looked pretty. Sam wasn't really interested. He never was focused on women. Until he met Aunt Vanessa, anyway._

" _Phoebe was so nice at first. She gave Joe a baseball cap after three months. Then she got him tickets to see a movie he'd been dying to watch. She even gave him a can of beer from the convenience store, but he said the taste was too bitter. His parents said they should have seen what she truly was, but at the time, they just thought…_

" _If the three of them could have seen what she did to another boy the previous winter, shoving him into the wall in the Scouts building, whacking him across the cheek with her tap shoe, telling him to shut up and man up, I doubt they'd have gone near her. Phoebe also dragged a little girl by her hair, screaming at her to shut up. There wasn't any security footage. I'd bet that Phoebe took the video from the camera or chose a room deliberately without a camera. Phoebe was rougher with a slightly older boy, threatening to pull his teeth out with pliers if he pestered her._

" _Well, Jodie, I need to – I really don't know if I should be talking about all of this to you. James can tell you when you're older. Phoebe was never part of our family. She's a glorified womb, that's all she was to us. She smiled at me in prison and I didn't feel any longing._

" _Phoebe was stabbed in prison when I was twelve. Apparently, Joe and I were in his room watching a video when his mom came in and told us that Phoebe had been killed. Joe didn't say anything, but I know he felt indifferent. Phoebe had been found in her cell, stabbed in the back. The killer wasn't found._

" _Some kids grow up without a mom. But you don't grow up without the feeling of wanting a mom. I never wanted one. I know it sounds harsh, but when your mother is someone half of Brooklyn wants to kiss and half of Brooklyn wants to shove down the sewer and be chomped by alligators, when you see her you only see a person. The same way you would look at a teacher from several years ago or a librarian you only ever see every two weeks. What I'm trying to say is that when everything - happened, Joe didn't even want to look at her. He may have had to, when she went to trial and she was pregnant with his child. But he hated her so much that he gave evidence by video-link. He always told me that he didn't know if he would love me. But when he held me - it's wonderful what a parent's love does._

" _She didn't know she was having a kid until five months along. She had spotting between periods. I guess that's how they caught her. I don't know if she ever thought she really loved Joe and thought we would be a family, somehow, in her demented vision or if she used him…"_

 _Joanne sighed again._

" _I don't want this to be miserable, Jodie. But remember that a family doesn't have to be blood. The boys have each other. You've got Samantha and Freddi. Just don't let anyone get hurt. If I'm right, when you get back to the Time Agency, go to the pool. You'll see where Joe is. Fred, Samantha and Freddi will accidently go to 1780, but they'll be back quickly. Then you have to see Vicky. Or maybe I have a few facts wrong. Blame my old age."_

 **Time Agency**

When Daisy had started talking to Uncle Joe in one of the pavilions, the children had started to wonder about, curiously.

Anna was hidden away in what had appeared to be a door cut inside a tree trunk, as if from a children's book, but the doorknob glowed bright green and when the others even went close, they felt dizzy. Uncle Joe said that this was protection, that Anna was in the most secure area. They hoped was the truth.

Samantha had sat on a small, curved marble bench, reading notes from a file that Daisy provided. This one was on the grounds of the Epsom Derby, where the Time Agent in 1913 was going to meet them.

Freddi sat cross-legged on the ground beside her, blowing at a dandelion clock. The nature in the Time Agency was so strange that none of them questioned it any more. When Samantha had asked what Freddi was doing, Freddi had replied that she needed to try and relax. "I'll think more clearly that way."

Sam stood on the bridge, also made of marble. He started to rest his chin on his hand, peering over the edge. The pool had looked so small when he'd been standing inside, freezing his butt off, but up here, he could see past all of the twists and turns. He didn't think he'd seen another pool that was many different shades of blue. Some parts had willow trees dipping their roots inside, others had mangroves or seemed as deep as the Barrier Reef. Maybe it was to do with the magic about this place.

"We'll find them." Fred's voice tore Sam from his thoughts. Sam turned his head to see his friend.

"I know." Sam tried to smile, but it only lasted a fraction of a second. "When I keep going over our adventures through time, in those first six months, I think we saw Mad Jack everywhere. He must have been spying on us."

Fred shivered. "I remember what you said about 'knowing something later'," he pointed out, "it's just creepy."

Sam then asked something, his mind racing as he did so.

"Fred, do you – do you think that we'll actually _love_ our spouses?"

"What do you mean?" Fred asked back, incredulously.

"Well," Sam's eyes looked over at the two girls, sitting several metres away, "we're not going to be kids forever. I'm going to be twelve on December 21st. That's – I think four days away. I think we left Ireland twelve hours ago. Anyway, we're going to grow up, we're going to have kids. But that just means we'll get married. What if I don't _like_ my wife?"

He remembered the names that Samantha had given when she was floating. She'd mentioned Sam's grandmother Deborah and Sam's dad Walter. But she'd also mentioned someone named Seth.

Sam didn't even know the name of his future wife, or where they'd meet. But he knew his son's name. And his granddaughter's and great-granddaughter's.

For the last eighteen months, Sam had tried to push the thought out of his mind. The fact that he'd grow up and have kids. He didn't want to.

He always wanted to stay a little boy.

But that isn't what time wants.

Fred held an arm around his friend's waist and looked into the water as well. "Relationships can be hard, trust me. I don't even like my brother, but I have to stay with him."

"He's your _brother_ ," Sam argued, "that's expected. But – I might have to spend the rest of my life with a woman I don't want."

"What – do you want?" Fred asked him.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. Somebody kind. And smart, too. I don't care if she's pretty or if she's as ugly as a toad."

 _She,_ Fred closed his eyes and tried to keep himself together, _that's the main problem._

Samantha glanced into the water again. She wasn't inside this time, but looking over made her curious. Who knew what she would see?

As she tilted her head upwards and saw Sam and Fred on the bridge, she frowned. Sighing, she closed her eyes and went onto her knees. Opening them, she stared deep, deep down into the water's murky depths.

Memories trickled by in front of her eyes, before she realised that she was seeing them from the pool. A photo coming to life before her eyes. Joanne, sat on the couch at Joe's home. She looked twenty-two years old. Samantha knew that she was looking at the minute before the photo on the wall at her house was taken.

A dark-haired boy sat on her right, wearing muddy dungarees. His glasses were askew and he wiped his nose on his hand. On Joanne's left was a blonde boy, tall and thin, bouncing about wearing a red jersey. They appeared around seven.

" _Come on, arms about the boys._ " Fred's voice, older and broken, spoke offscreen. Joanne pulled the boys close as the darker one started crying.

" _Hey, Seth, don't whine._ " A woman came forward and dried his eyes with a handkerchief.

" _They're all right, honey,_ " Sam told her, " _he doesn't like old-fashioned cameras, remember?_ "

" _Crybaby._ " The blonde boy stuck his tongue out.

" _Erik!_ " Fred scolded him. " _Now, everyone, smile!_ "

Then the picture had been taken.

Samantha felt herself waking up, her joints stiff and slow. Looking across at Jodie, standing in the pavilion with the giant crystal ball, then up to her almost-twelve-year-old great-grandfather on the bridge.

"They're going to be happy," Freddi said beside her, "I saw what you were looking at."

"Didn't you wonder," Samantha asked, "why Joanne seemed a lot older than Seth and Erik? She was fifteen years older than them. She had to babysit them frequently."

"Well, Sam and Fred married Vanessa and Faith when they were in their late twenties. Joe became a dad at fifteen." Freddi responded, a little puzzled because she thought it was obvious.

"But they got married," Samantha racked her brains as she tried to work out an answer, "Phoebe went to prison."

"Did Jodie ever say why her great-grandmother went to prison?" Freddi started playing with another dandelion.

"Supplying alcohol to a minor."

Freddi had blown some of the seeds over the water and froze. Part of her mind watched them float away, but the other part was wondering about how the young woman could be arrested just for that.

"She did?" Freddi raised her eyebrow. Samantha nodded. Freddi breathed out, overwhelmed. "I thought it was for murder or something."

Jodie placed her hand onto the cold crystal ball. Closing her eyes tightly, she contemplated everything that she had seen, everything that she pieced together from Joanne's videos.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to no-one in particular, "I'm sorry, Joe."

Daisy called out, "Right, we need to go and speak to the Time Agent in 1913. Sam, Samantha, Freddi, you need to come with me. Fred, Jodie, stay here until further notice."

 **1983, Brooklyn**

" _Mrs Arthur?" Lenny stood outside of her bedroom, knocking gently on the door. The tired woman answered it, rubbing her eyes._

" _What?" she asked, yawning. Her daughter, aged only twelve, only with thirteen-year-old Joseph, stood outside their rooms as they watched the Time Agent go into her room and shut the door behind him._

" _Is it something to do with Jack?" the girl asked her older brother. He shrugged, fiddling with his fountain pen in his fingers, something he did when he was nervous._

 _They heard their mother crying loudly._

 _The children held each other's hands as they waited, patiently. For the girl, it seemed to be the longest she ever had to wait for anything._

 **Time Agency**

" _What exactly do we do?" Joseph asked, as they sat around the pavilion. About a hundred Time Agents had been called from their various time periods to await the announcement._

 _Daisy, a girl of about eighteen years old, explained to him. "Because the Warp Wizard has – we need to see who is to be named the next Warp Wizard. It always happens to be either someone that a Time Agent will be related to, or someone not necessarily related to them but will be important to them in their future."_

 _Before Joseph could ask anything else, Daisy whispered, "Listen! It's starting!"_

 _The Time Agents, all dressed in their red, green and dark blue robes, all sitting cross-legged on the grass – or in some cases, hovering on top of the water – watched as the highest-ranking Time Knight, a slender, bushy-haired man named Kristopher, poured the potion on top of the crystal ball. Rather than dripping over the sides, the liquid appeared to evaporate and turn into green smoke._

 _The smoke filled the entire pavilion, spreading over the ground and past most of the Time Agents. To Joseph's utter surprise, the smoke began to swirl in a clockwise direction about his waist._

" _The next Warp Wizard will be related to you," Daisy gasped, placing her fingers near her mouth in bewilderment, "we never would have –"_

 _Joseph knew what they were all thinking._

 _His brother, Jack, at just fifteen years of age, had killed Hedgewing. So why was Joseph going to be related to Hedgewing's successor? Maybe that was just the way things worked._

 _From behind one of the bushes, Jack scowled as he saw his brother being lifted slowly into the air. This wasn't fair! The Book had been his, and now another relative was going to be the next Warp Wizard?_

 _Joseph's head was pulled back as if by invisible wires. His eyes glowed green and he could suddenly see everything._

 _After a few moments, he was brought gently back to the ground, before the smoke dispersed. Daisy and another agent, Lottie, helped him to his feet._

 _Kristopher then bellowed, his voice echoing through the tiny, but still somehow endless garden, "The next wizard has been chosen! Time Squire Joseph Arthur, whom amongst your descendants will be the next Warp Wizard?"_

" _He doesn't even like girls." Lottie murmured._

" _It's not my kid," Joseph felt dizzy, partly from the experience and partly because everybody was looking at him, "it's my sister's son. But – he won't be born for twelve years."_

" _And what is his name?" Kristopher shouted across the crowd._

" _Same as mine," Joseph swallowed, "Joseph Arthur. He's – he's going to use my Book when he turns ten. He'll be Warp Wizard when he's eleven."_

 _There was a scattering of murmurs throughout the crowd. Then a voice to Joseph's right, beside the pool, called out, "And your brother?"_

 _Jack tensed underneath the bush. How dare his nephew be Warp Wizard, while Jack was wanted by the Time Agency? His luck only seemed to be getting worse and worse. Fury boiled inside him as he watched his nervous, frantic and confused brother mumble out answers._

" _Doesn't come into my nephew's early life. Not until he starts time-travelling."_

" _Well, that is settled," Kristopher clapped his hands together, "we shall all go back to our timezones and remember, if anybody sees Jack, do not immediately approach him, but contact another Time Agent. That is all. Farewell."_

 _After they had all left, Jack gripped his staff tightly in his hand, as he emerged out into where the garden was in the physical world - up in the Himalayas._

 _They would pay. His brother would pay, for not respecting him. His future nephew would pay, for being the new Warp Wizard and being more powerful than him._

 _Meanwhile, Joseph exited into Mabel's Diner, thinking about what he had seen. The important dates in his future nephew's timeline stood out significantly. He had only glimpsed small bits, as everything after his nephew would start travelling in time would be foggy._

 _The day he was born. The day he received the Book. Many other dates, happy and sad. The day his sister was born. The day he started school and met his friends. The day he met his great-granddaughter._

 _And...one day...one day in particular..._

 _Joseph asked Kristopher about it. If this was what would_ really _happen. All Kristopher did was look at Joseph with pity and sadness._

 _And Joseph felt more determined than ever to protect his nephew._

 **1913, Epsom Downs**

Samantha, Sam and Freddi landed on bales of hay inside a stable. As the girls stood up and helped Sam out, having landed upside down, Freddi looked about.

"Is this where we meet the Time Agent?" she asked.

"Not sure," Samantha answered, pulling hay from Sam's hair, "I guess we'll have to wait."

"I meant to ask," Freddi turned to Sam, "how did you contact us if you didn't have the Book?"

Sam quickly explained about the Book suddenly appearing on the bed. Samantha nodded, as if she understood.

"That must have been Joanne," she told him, "she could send the Book through time by itself. She told Jodie that from one of the videos."

"The only video she let us watch," Freddi moaned, "Jodie knows that we won't disrupt the space-time continuum."

"Perhaps she doesn't want to risk a paradox," Sam shrugged his shoulders, "come on, let's look about the area. Where is this, anyway?"

"1913," Samantha replied as they walked out of the stable, "the day Emily Davison threw herself in front of a horse. From what I've guessed since Daisy told me where we were going, I'd say that the Time Agent – Daisy told me that she was called Connie – is a Suffragette or Suffragist."

"What's the difference?" Freddi asked. Before Samantha, groaning, could answer, Sam quickly explained.

"Suffragists fought peacefully for the vote. Suffragettes smashed windows and set fire to post-boxes."

"Doesn't sound very good to me." Freddi muttered, before they started to see a large crowd milling about by the racetrack.

"Anyway, what time did Uncle Joe say he'd meet us?" Sam asked.

"Half three." Samantha replied, "We'd better try and find Mad Jack before then."

"Before he finds us." Sam gulped.

As they approached, they saw a woman aged around forty years old, standing by a polling booth, turn around to look at them. The woman was dressed all in white, with a matching large hat and holding an identical umbrella.

"Sent from the Time Agency?" she smiled at them. Then she held her gloved hand out, "Connie. Time Agent. Spent the best part of sixteen years in Victorian England and to be frank, I'm bored stiff of everything."

Samantha introduced themselves, before she asked, "Have you seen Mad Jack anywhere nearby?"

Connie scoffed. "We've been looking for the man for twenty years. My chances of sighting him today are as slim as the derby being won by a one-legged tortoise."

"You haven't seen him at all in twenty years?" Freddi raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Connie nodded, digging her umbrella into the ground. "Neither hide nor hair. And I've been involved with the Suffragists and the Suffragettes since the very beginning. Needed to check up on everything, kids. Make sure it's going smoothly. And talking of going smoothly," she looked out towards the racetrack, "there are some things that need to stay put. I honestly wouldn't have come today if I could help it."

Sam whispered to Freddi, "Why is she talking like my granny?"

Samantha cut across, standing in front of Sam to try to talk to Connie. "The Time Agency traced Mad Jack here. Isn't there _anything_ that seems out of place?"

Connie shook her head. "Come with me. We could look around. If you spot anything that escapes me, that would be a tremendous help."

They paused for a moment, trying to understand what she was saying. How come every Time Agent they met was either murdered or indecipherable, Sam wondered, as they walked after her.

Mad Jack had appeared inside the stables before the three children had even arrived. He had needed a certain vial that he knew the Time Agent Connie kept on her person. While any other vial would normally do, he was sure that the Time Agency would be more vigilant than ever and he didn't know where else to get one that hadn't been contaminated.

When he had seen the children, he had ducked behind a stable door and watched them go out. He chuckled to himself as the cogs and gears in his brain whirred. This was just too easy!

They didn't seem to find anything.

Looking about for what seemed like hours, the four of them eventually decided on going back to the stables, to report to Daisy that it was a wild goose chase. Freddi decided to go back to the stables to sit down, since she complained that her feet were killing her.

Then it happened. Emily Davison was hit by the horse.

Sam and Samantha couldn't help but stare in horror, which was understandable. Even though they knew it would happen, it was still a terrible thing to witness. Connie tried to usher the children away and as she did so, she didn't notice that a hand was slipping inside her bag and pulling her vial away.

Freddi sat on the chair at the entrance to the stables. Everyone was fussing over 'that idiotic suffragette' and she was worn out from running between the two places. Not to mention the fact that the last time she had slept it had been in her own bedroom, which was at least twenty-four hours ago.

Leaning back, she groaned inwardly. Time-travel used to be exciting for her. Something that she and the girls – and sometimes the boys – did when their weekends were boring, or to ace their projects for school.

But Mad Jack came along and ruined it. Freddi remembered a time when she, Jodie and Samantha had been stuck in a ditch in No Man's Land for seventeen hours, because Mad Jack had turned himself into a horse they were riding.

Suddenly, Freddi heard heavy breathing right behind her. Brushing her hand up, thinking that it was a horse, she snapped, "Shoo! Get away!"

Then the chair was knocked back as she was lifted from it. Freddi's shoes caught the hay-coated floor as she kicked.

Freddi began to scream, but a gloved hand shoved something into her mouth. Pulling at the arm, she heard Mad Jack chuckle.

"Night, night, kid."

Her hairs standing up on end, Freddi's eyes glazed over as she quickly fell asleep.

Alerted by Freddi's screams, Sam and Samantha had begun running. They hadn't been far from the stable, but had gone as fast as their heels could carry them the second they heard her.

Arriving at the door, they were just in time to see Mad Jack about to warp. Freddi was lying back underneath one of his arms. In the other hand, he held his staff afloat.

"Ah, so nice to see you," he smirked at the two, "can't stop. I have a kid to threaten."

"Put her down!" Samantha shouted at him. Mad Jack only raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"So sweet. Desperate to save your friends. I made the right decision, Samantha. You really are a wonderful addition."

"I wouldn't marry you in a thousand years! I'd rather marry Henry VIII!" Samantha spat, "Give her back now!"

"No," Mad Jack sniggered, "I need someone to force Joe to reveal what else he knows about the Book. There's stuff he hasn't given away."

"Is Joe OK?" Sam asked, the sound of his friend's name causing his thoughts to fly about in his head.

Mad Jack nodded. "For the time being. But I need somebody that he loves to drop over a cliff if he doesn't let on everything. And since I won't hurt either of you…"

Samantha bravely took a step forward. "Don't take – any – more – of my – friends!" she scowled. Noticing that Freddi's eyes had begun to flutter slowly, Samantha looked back at her great-grandfather, mouthing 'after me'.

She held her finger forward and pointed at Mad Jack. "You honestly want me when I'm grown? I'd never even touch a disgusting, filthy beast like you with a barge pole! I still remember what you did when we were on the _Titanic_."

Mad Jack turned to Sam. "Do I need to ask your permission?"

Sam had no idea what Mad Jack was going on about, or even if he actually wanted to know. But before he could do anything, Samantha had taken a leap at the villain, knocking him to the ground. Sam took the cue and raced forward to try and grab Freddi, still under Mad Jack's arm.

Pulling his friend from Mad Jack's grasp, Sam lifted her up under her arms. Samantha pushed herself up, stepping on Mad Jack's face as she went. Grabbing Freddi's legs, she helped lift her as the two of them ran out.

Mad Jack grabbed his staff from where it had fallen, before looking around outside.

Sam and Samantha had hidden inside a large bush, lying down on their fronts in the mud.

Freddi murmured, stirring. "Quiet," Samantha hissed, "or he'll spot us!"

"Mom?" Freddi mumbled, delirious. Samantha reached out her hand and closed it over Freddi's mouth, ducking her head down further as boots appeared beside them.

Sam's heart was thudding in his throat. He wondered if he could possibly tie Mad Jack's shoelaces together to help them get away faster, but Samantha shook her head, as if she knew what he was thinking.

The boots moved on and they waited silently for a few moments, before Samantha slowly removed her hand from Freddi.

"I think he's gone," Sam whispered, "but what now?"

Samantha shrugged. "Uncle Joe said to meet us at the stables at half past three. It's almost time. We'd better hurry."

"Wait a minute. Where's Connie?" Sam asked.

Then they heard a sharp scream from just around the corner. Sam and Samantha watched as they saw Mad Jack standing in front of Connie. She was kneeling on the grass, her hand over a spot in her side, which was bleeding.

Mad Jack held the knife aloft as he sniggered, as if he found this funny.

"Well, it appears that I win this round, Connie," he sneered, holding his other hand on his hip, looking down at the dying woman, "guess this means I'm better than you."

Connie frowned at him, as she tried her best to stand. But he just kicked her over again and she groaned in pain.

As Mad Jack disappeared, Sam and Samantha held each other's hands tight with fear. Almost instantly, they heard Uncle Joe's voice nearby.

"Too late," they heard him mutter, as he ran up to Connie and held the flopping woman close, "Sam? Samantha? Freddi?"

"Over here." Sam called, as he crawled out from under the hedge. Samantha tried her best to pull Freddi out, but as they were roughly the same height and weight, it was like tugging a sack of potatoes.

Uncle Joe threw something in their direction, which landed beside them. Mist came out as Sam started to realise it was a Time Bomb. Uncle Joe also started to disappear with Connie at roughly the same time.

 **Time Agency**

"Daisy!" Uncle Joe shouted as soon as he had come back.

Daisy turned from the pavilion steps to see Uncle Joe and Sam running towards her. Uncle Joe was carrying Connie on his shoulders. Daisy went pale when she saw the blood.

"Mad Jack," Sam managed to tell her, his voice trembling, "w-we couldn't do anything."

"He's taken Connie's vial," Uncle Joe told Daisy, "but I'm not entirely sure why."

"I'd say he doesn't want to cross-contaminate," Daisy sighed, as Uncle Joe placed Connie's lifeless body onto the pavilion steps, "he's making a potion. A shapeshifting potion. But we don't know why. Or where he's hidden Joe. I've tried to narrow down the place he went to, but all I can find is that it's a hundred years either way of 2006."

"Can we have this conversation somewhere else," Sam was turning as green as Daisy's robes, "this is the second dead body I've seen in twenty-four hours."

"Where are Fred and Jodie?" Uncle Joe asked.

"Still in 1780, if I'm right," Daisy pulled a lock of hair behind her ear, "should be back soon. Come on, Sam, I'll see if I can take you indoors."

As she gently took Sam's hand, his eyes still focused on the body, he muttered something about being surprised that there was an 'indoors' here and why couldn't the pool be indoors.

 **Mad Jack's Other Lair**

Mad Jack slammed the door open on the stone wall, shaking his nephew awake.

Snarling, Mad Jack pulled Joe up by the collar. Joe tried to pull his uncle's rough, filthy hand away, but it was no use.

"Time for Plan B, nephew," Mad Jack started dragging Joe out of the door, "and I'm not going to let anything get in my way this way."

Joe was in danger of stumbling. He pleaded for Mad Jack to put him down, to undo the cuffs, but they fell on deaf ears.

Soon Mad Jack had tugged Joe someway up a small, rocky hill. Letting Joe drop to the ground, the boy groaned in pain for a second before attempting to push himself up.

Looking about, he noticed that they were on an island. The sea stretched for miles around him and the skies were cloudy and miserable. This must be the highest point, he thought to himself.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard Mad Jack swearing. Doing his best to turn around, Joe saw Mad Jack dropping the top of his staff into a cauldron filled with dark green liquid.

"Now," Mad Jack said slowly and carefully, "this will hurt, Joseph. It will also take up quite a bit of my time. It will not kill you, but if you happen to be awake, then it will be agonising."

Joe tried to shuffle back, but his uncle went down on his knees, still holding the staff, grabbing Joe by the legs.

"Please, don't," Joe panicked, "don't hurt me. Please!"

"Joseph, you whine too much," Mad Jack grumbled, "and I don't want an annoying, squealing voice while I do this. So I'll have to make you go to sleep."

Joe was about to ask what Mad Jack meant when his uncle pulled something from inside his pocket. Before Joe could react, Mad Jack reached forward and pushed a capsule into the boy's mouth.

Mad Jack gripped his hand tightly over Joe's mouth to prevent him from spitting it out, while his other hand pulled down his cuffed wrists.

"Swallow it, Joseph." Mad Jack spat.

Joe tried to resist, trying his best to push the capsule out.

"I said swallow it!"

Mad Jack's thumb crushed the capsule against Joe's teeth. Joe struggled for a few seconds, before his eyelids began to droop and he stopped struggling.

Mad Jack let go of his nephew and picked up his staff. Placing the top back into the cauldron, Mad Jack concentrated, muttering the spell under his breath. Then he held the staff aloft by Joe's Third Eye.

 _Soon,_ Mad Jack told himself, _soon they will come. And you'll trap them._

 **2088, Brooklyn**

 _Joanne held her shawl close as she faced the camera. Smiling a little, it faded before she carried on speaking._

" _The winter's getting colder. I know that I die in 2088 and that year is closing. Don't feel too sorry for me, Jodie. I've seen things that most people haven't and I wouldn't miss it for anything._

" _Joe always said that he thought he would have hated me when he first saw me. But when he first held me, when I came home from the prison hospital I had lived the first three months of my life, he felt a strange, warm feeling. He said that from that instant, he wanted to hold me and never let me go. I was the only good thing to come from the – 'union' between him and Phoebe._

" _I was fourteen when he finally told me. I was in his room – Anna and I shared, despite our age difference– and he sat me down on his bed. He said that I was old enough to know. Old enough to know how wicked Phoebe was …"_

 _Joanne sobbed and held her knuckle close to her mouth._

" _Oh, what am I doing, talking about things James has already told you? This is a video that you'll watch after my death. I won't make you miserable. But it's something that I have always struggled to talk about, even to James and his dad._

" _Jodie, you're going to have to promise me something. Promise that – when this is all over, you won't have to try – and live for me. Live for yourself. I don't need pitying. Don't wreck your life the way that Joe thought his was wrecked. Can you do that for me?"_

 _Joanne smirked as she looked at the camera._

" _It's Christmas Day today, Jodie. James has been by, with your Mom. And your big sister Jessie. She's only three years old. I expect you know her as the annoying girl who grabbed your toys. It's uncanny to think of your granddaughter as a fully grown woman, but that's what I've seen her as._

" _The doctors say my medication's only going to let me live for a week at the most. My next video may be of me in the hospice. Usually people in the hospice are older than me, with late twenty-first-century medicine helping people grow old with grace. A person can easily reach a hundred. But I guess the Book took a toll on me. And Joe._

" _Still, seventy-eight's a good age to go and like I said in other videos, I'm glad that I've enjoyed myself, rather than had almost eighty years of boredom or pain. I'm technically not sure how old I am, due to the Book halting our aging if we went back in time for more than a fortnight. I spent twenty-one months in plague-infested London when I was twelve, but I certainly didn't look fourteen when I came back. So I guess my age actually is closer to ninety._

" _It doesn't seem to have affected Uncle Fred and Uncle Sam as much as Joe or I. Maybe it's because we were the owners of the Book, maybe it's because we travelled by ourselves – as well as you or Anna – a lot more than them, I don't have the answer._

" _What I do know, Jodie, is that you need to go to Vicky and then help Joe._

" _Otherwise, you'll fade from existence."_

 _She lay back in her chair, trying to lift her hand to squeeze the bridge of her nose, but found that she was too weak to even try. She mouthed, looking at somebody behind the camera, 'I'm fine, James'._

" _Jodie," she smiled sweetly, "I know it's not going to be for a couple of years yet, but – when Joe is – he's going to hate you. Technically it's 'hate by proxy' because you came from James and James came from me and I came from Phoebe, but he'll want somebody to blame. He's going to say horrible things to you and he won't travel in time for nearly six years._

" _I think he'll have calmed down by the time I come to live with his family. Please, please, try to stay calm. It's the worst thing anyone can suffer, to be frank, and he won't take it easy. But you have to be patient. This awful cycle is one that has to go on. Remember that I said that I would have done anything to ease his pain? The worst part about being a time traveller is that there are some places you can never go; there are some things you can never make better."_

 _She then tried to stand up, but found that she was shaking. James came from behind the camera and helped to lift her up, taking her off-screen. The camera filmed a lone chair for a few moments, before another person turned it off._

 **1780, Valley Forge**

Fred peeked through the crack in the door leading into the back garden as Jodie stood guard at the end of the hallway.

They'd spent eight hours waiting in the freezing cold house for the Time Agent – an old guy named George – to stop prowling about and actually tell them where he expected Mad Jack to be. He had spotted Joe's uncle about recently and had kept a good eye on him.

Except that Fred wondered if Mad Jack was playing with George's mind.

Apparently, George had seen Mad Jack in the garden earlier that day and told Fred to keep a lookout. But now Fred was getting increasingly bored.

"Jodie, can you see anything?" Fred whispered down the hallway.

"No," she replied, "but – no!"

Fred ran over to her side. Then he saw what she was pointing at with a quivering finger. George lay on his side, groaning loudly. When they hadn't been looking, Mad Jack had stabbed him.

George was still alive, but barely. And eighteenth-century medicine wasn't going to help much.

"Jodie, how do we get back to the Time Agency?" Fred asked, opening and shutting drawers to try and find something to stem the blood flow.

"I think George's pocket watch is here somewhere." she opened the cupboard doors, "Ah! Here it is!"

She took it out and then started fiddling with it.

"Hurry up!" Fred hissed towards her, "Mad Jack might be back any second!"

Jodie hooked Fred's arm in hers, the other hand on George's shoulder, as she used the watch to get to the Time Agency.

As soon as they disappeared, the door opened again. Mad Jack slyly peered about. No luck. They'd already gone. Oh well. He hadn't quite managed to steal George's watch – which was quite an impressive invention – but he wasn't going to give up easily.

He still had one more place to go.

 **Time Agency**

"Any luck?" Daisy asked, turning around to face Jodie and Fred. Then her face paled when she saw George lying, injured, on the tiled white floor.

"How come I'm being surrounded by dead bodies?" Sam shrieked from a few feet away. "It's not exactly an enjoyable experience!"

Fred took a good look at where they had arrived. Instead of the freezing garden, they were in a slightly warmer room made out of stone and tiles. There was a pool in the shape of a wonky 'L' behind him, which, like the pool outside, was a strange mix of dark and light blue in separate areas.

In the deepest part of the pool were Sam, Freddi and Samantha, all kicking to stay afloat. The very bottom of the pool, perhaps seven feet down, seemed to glow a lime green. The short part of the 'L' was cordoned off by massive white beads.

"George isn't dead yet," Daisy stood up, "but he's gravely injured. Here, take the watch." She handed Jodie the Time Agent's watch, before running off towards a nearby door.

Fred then asked, puzzled, "Sam? What _exactly_ are you doing?"

Freddi explained for him.

"When we got back from 1913, Daisy told us that she'd narrowed down an exact location for Mad Jack. He's in 1967, near the safehouse of one of the other Time Agents. Daisy thinks that he'll go after her, next."

But Sam then interrupted. "We're in here because this is the portal that most Time Agents use to travel. Daisy says that she can't use her bracelet to transport us anymore because it needs soaking in the outdoor pool.

"But what I can't understand is," he scowled, "why the other pool wasn't indoors. I mean – sure, it's eighteen degrees in here, but that's _luxury_ compared to standing on a ledge in the dark! Also, all of the Time Agents we meet that _don't_ get bumped off are nutcases!" He started waving his arms about. "One of the old guys meditating outside woke up, floated over here and used if we wanted crumpets and iced tea."

"I was kind of thirsty." Freddi remarked.

Sam rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "And the pictures from the crystal ball, my word! Fred, do you know that these guys' idea of exercise is turning invisible and beating each other up?"

Fred suddenly had a nasty flashback to when they trekked across Madagascar, chained, attached to a dead corpse due to upsetting Queen Ranavalona.

"It's to train them to expect the unexpected." Jodie tried to tell them, but Sam was on a roll.

"Anna said to us that the room she's using is about six degrees Celsius. That's forty-two degrees Fahrenheit, Fred! And someone woke her up by spraying cold water from a hose on her bed! Trust me, when we get Joe back, we're _never_ coming back here!"

Then there was silence as they all thought about Joe.

"I hope he's OK," Sam mumbled, a lot quieter now, "I – I miss him."

"So do I, Sam." Fred sat on the edge of the pool, reached across and squeezed his hand tight.

"Well, so do I; my existence depends on him." Jodie sighed. She sat down on a nearby plastic chair and cradled the watch in her hands, looking down at it.

"I know he can be annoying – and his magic tricks are practically awful – but he's our friend," Sam said what they were all thinking, "and your family, Jodie. And – he's not my family, but he feels like it."

Fred nodded.

"You argue with Joe a lot when you grow up," Samantha told the boys, "just as you do now."

Freddi chuckled. " _Joe, we're not flying to Australia in that tin deathtrap!_ "

Samantha then imitated Sam. " _It's pronounced 'Brecht-ian', how many times do I have to tell you?_ "

" _We're not walking forty miles across enemy lines to get a typewriter._ " Freddi giggled.

Samantha trailed off, " _Joe, my wife is not giving birth in an Amazonian rainforest!_ "

"What?" Sam's eyes widened.

"Never mind," she gabbled, "the point is, no matter what happens, we all need to have hope. You three are the best of friends and nothing will ever stop that."

Freddi nodded in agreement.

At that moment, Daisy came back through the door, with Uncle Joe following her. Daisy was pushing a restaurant trolley, but instead of food, there were five logs laid out.

"Now, none of you have done this before, so I will have to show you," she took one of the logs and held it in her hands, "you have to hold them until they feel weightless. Then you let them float down to the bottom of the pool. You will be able to go anywhere in time then, so you will need to repeat co-ordinates after I say them. Everybody ready?"

They all nodded. Daisy pushed Fred and Jodie into the pool, with a gigantic splash. Jodie shouted that her hair was now ruined, but Daisy only giggled behind a hand.

Despite Jodie glaring at her, Daisy handed out the logs. They each weighed about the same as four bags of sugar and really hurt the children's arms. But as they kept on kicking in the water, the logs slowly became lighter, until they were just like feathers.

As they each slowly slipped the logs away, Daisy spoke slowly and clearly.

"Meadow House, Old Saddle, California, 6.13pm, 8th October 1967."

As the children repeated what she had said, they saw the green light appear to come closer, although they were almost certainly sinking. As the mist appeared about them, they felt themselves being warped through time.

 **2088, Brooklyn**

" _Hello, Jodie," Joanne smiled from her hospice bed, "it's 30th December 2088. About half four in the morning. I'm having trouble breathing and James is holding the camera for me. I can't – even move my arms. But this will be a short message. Meet me in the graveyard, after you find Joe. We'll have our showdown at Phoebe's grave."_

 **December 18th 2009, Brooklyn**

 _She smiled to herself as she set everything out._

 _Phoebe had tried her best to make it seem romantic. She had put some classical music on the CD player, made up two cocktails (Bloody Mary, if she was correct) and had applied some red cushions to the couch. It clashed, mainly because the couch was light blue, but they were all she could do at short notice._

 _She had been planning their date for a long time. Stealing the key from the Head Scout, she had made up her little love nest in the unused attic room. No-one would find them; the match was going to be loud and take up at least ninety minutes._

 _Now, she stood by the reception as she waited for Joe to drop Anna off._

 _Phoebe's heart pounded in her ears as fear and excitement filled her. Would she get away with this? She certainly hoped she would. It was terrible, but the thrill was enormous._

 _Joe had arrived. Phoebe was glad that she had chosen such a good-looking guy. Tall, dark-haired and skinny, he was so handsome when he wore lime green – as he did often. Today he was wearing baggy jeans and a dark green jumper. Oh well, you can't have everything._

" _Hi, Joe," she blushed, pulling her hair behind her ear as Anna trooped into the hall, "can I just bother you for a few moments?"_

" _Look, I'm going to meet Fred and Sam at the cinema later."_

" _I'll call them. Say you're busy. I just need you quickly."_

 _Before he could answer, she had taken his hand and was starting to lead him up the stairs. Joe tried to grip onto the banister and pull away, but she held him fast, digging her nails in._

" _Phoebe, please, can you get someone else to do it? I don't want to upset them." He tugged away but she was clasping his wrist tight._

 _She whipped around, her ponytail flying, frowning nastily. Then her face formed a smile again._

" _Trust me, Joe. You'll love this."_

 _As they walked past a cloakroom, a small girl came out and saw the two of them._

" _Oh, hello Phoe –"_

" _Listen, you little cow, if you tell anyone that I was up here, I'll cut your tongue out with kitchen scissors." Phoebe snapped without taking a breath. The girl squeaked and ran down the staircase._

" _Phoebe, that wasn't nice." Joe frowned at her. As they climbed the next set of stairs, he kept trying to push her away. But if it hurt her, she didn't react._

 _She flung open the door and pushed him inside. He looked about, taking it in._

" _You've – you've taken a lot of effort." He licked his lips._

 _Phoebe held her head to one side and smiled sweetly at him, those pretty pearly whites burning into his skull._

" _Oh, Joe," she stood on tiptoes and draped her arms around his neck, "don't worry. I love you. And I won't hurt you."_

 _The corner of his mouth twitched and she stroked his cheek with her finger. "There, you see?" she giggled. "I love you."_

 _Joe blushed. "Well, Phoebe, I'm – flattered, to say the least. I mean – you're beautiful. Truly, don't get me wrong. But – I don't like breaking promises."_

 _She pulled him down to the couch, arm closed around his waist. "Have a drink, Joe. I treat you like a grown-up. You are a grown-up. Stuff the law!"_

" _If you insist," Joe mumbled, "I'll call and say I have flu or something."_

" _That's the spirit," Phoebe chuckled, "I never played by the rules."_

 **Mad Jack's Other Lair**

Joe's mind was swimming.

Since Mad Jack knocked him out, he found himself in a green tornado. Unlike whenever he warped, it didn't go anywhere.

"It's a dream," he told himself, clasping his hands in front of his heart, "you'll wake up. He won't kill you. He said he wouldn't."

"He won't, Joseph Arthur," a voice boomed around him, "there is no need to feel afraid."

Joe looked about. He saw a man in his late fifties, wearing a tweed jacket and a purple shirt. A brooch on his breast pocket was of a dark purple owl. His grey hair was in a short ponytail and he held his hands behind his back, standing tall and straight.

"Hedgewing?" Joe asked.

"I am the prior Warp Wizard," Hedgewing answered, "I am also deceased. I was in the middle of seeing you as the Warp Wizard when your uncle killed me."

"But I don't know how to stop him!" Joe squealed. "He's – I don't know what he's doing, but I don't know where he took me, I'm tired, hungry and cold, I want my friends and I –"

"Your friends are coming, Joe," Hedgewing reassured him, "they will work out where you are when you go to 1967."

"I am there? In 1967?" Joe asked.

"No," he replied, "you are in 1946. Mad Jack found a Scottish island, in the Outer Hebrides, when he was a boy. He used it as a lair after he ran away from home aged eleven. I assumed that he would be good, even after he killed me. It appears that I was wrong."

"Dead wrong." Joe muttered, before realising what he had just said.

Hedgewing smiled and shook his head. "You're going to be fine, Joe. It might seem as if you're stuck in a rut, that you can't go anywhere. You feel depressed. You feel let down by everyone. As if you keep finding dead ends. But remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You can stop time without needing the Book."

"How?"

"Because I'll show you." Joe saw Hedgewing disappear in front of his eyes.

"Hey! Come back!" Joe shouted.

Opening his heavy eyes, Joe couldn't remember a time that he had felt as cold. Not in Antarctica, not in Culloden, not when they crossed the Delaware, not when they went to Anjikuni and Sam got so scared and desperate to get away that he tried being their sled dog.

Joe was too exhausted to try to move. But he heard Hedgewing's voice in his head, loud and clear.

 _Remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You can stop time without needing the Book._

 **2088, Brooklyn**

" _You're such a brave girl, Jodie," Joanne's voice croaked, barely forming a smile, "and Samantha and Freddi and Anna. And Uncle Fred and Uncle Sam, you are wonderful, loyal friends and amazing boys. And Joe – Dad – I love you. With all my heart."_

 **1967, California**

The five children landed outside a one-storey house in the middle of a large garden. Fields seemed to surround them for miles and there were mountains in the very distance.

A note by the doorbell read ' _If you are from the Time Agency, knock three times exactly – and if you're not, I have a shotgun_ '.

"I guess we have to knock." Sam shrugged, doing so.

The front door opened and the healthiest-looking sixty-six-year-old any of them had ever seen stepped out onto the porch. She eyed them suspiciously, before she asked, "Did Daisy send you?"

Sam nodded, trying to smile at her, failing miserably. "Yeah, we just left the Time Agency. I'm Sam and –"

"Yes, she said you five were coming," she stepped out of the way to usher them inside, "where's Joseph Arthur Sr.?"

Realising that she meant Uncle Joe, Freddi answered, "He's coming. I won't know when, though."

"Well, he'd better," the woman muttered, "last time I had to wait three days after he wasn't concentrating during meditation. I'm Vicky, Time Knight and bored of living out here."

The five of them trooped inside. Ahead of them lay piles and piles of junk. Most of it seemed to be books piled up on chairs, but there were also rolls of wallpaper and newspapers tied up with string. A gramophone sat atop a coffee table, along with several china bluebirds.

It was barely a house, with only four rooms, all filled with junk, even her bathroom. Several trinkets and valuable items, many of which were in boxes, with stickers such as 'A-D', 'E-F' and so on. Some boxes had green mist surrounding them, which seemed very out of place against everything else.

These boxes had the lids open, possibly as part of some spell or other, which enabled Fred and Jodie to crouch down and look inside.

One box was labelled 'Royal Casket'. Another read 'Yamashita's gold'. There seemed to be many others that had mist surrounding them; 'Nelson's Chelengk', Antikensammlung Museum Paintings', 'Faberge Egg Collection', Gustav Klimt Paintings', 'Mountain Eagle – Hitchcock', 'Televised Recordings – BBC', 'Televised Recordings – DuMont Network'.

"Why do you have these?" Jodie raised an eyebrow.

Vicky sat down in a rocking chair, pushing a chessboard from on top. "Lost works, to take back when my time here is over. If Daisy and the men are willing to bring me back. I've lived here for fifty years and I've spent my time doing nearly nothing. I just took this so I could sell it when I finally retire. Do you have any idea what it's like to live off of saltines and Tang?"

"But why's there so much in here?" Sam didn't even want to breathe in case he knocked something to the floor. Samantha and Freddi were standing next to each other on the only piece of the faded green rug that was visible and even then it appeared covered in mud and coffee.

"I don't like to waste things," Vicky sipped at a freezing cold mug of cocoa, "I go into San Francisco sometimes, to scout the area and make sure everything's fine. I have an excellent memory. Now, would anyone like roly-poly pudding and lemonade?"

 _Just when you thought that they couldn't get crazier_ , Fred grumbled to himself.

As Uncle Joe arrived, he had to take his hat off to avoid shaking the wind chimes on the front porch. Looking inside to see the five children sitting on the floor, he grinned and asked, "Ah, having tea, are we?"

"I feel sick," Samantha held her hands around her stomach, "when did Vicky buy that jam?"

"Well, she does good cookies." Uncle Joe picked one up from the breakfast bar.

"Cookies?" Freddi made a face. "I thought they were tiles."

"It's better than her Christmas dinner, I suppose," Uncle Joe pulled his pen out, which started writing on the wall beside them, "she accidentally used gunpowder instead of brown sugar." He started sniggering. "She – nearly set Kristopher's hair on fire! But he didn't notice. He just slowly walked into the pool and out again."

"Well, I'm sorry," Vicky came in from the kitchen, stepping over a train set and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "the labels have faded."

"I'm beginning to see why she eats saltines and Tang." Sam went a shade of green that reminded Fred of the time mist.

Jodie had somehow managed to get into the kitchen. Holding her knees close to her chin, she sat between an armchair and an upturned table.

She'd watched all of the videos that Joanne had made, after sneaking back into Mabel's Diner and using the television set. She'd just seen the last one, made on New Year's Eve 2088.

Joanne had given all her advice. And Jodie knew that Mad Jack would appear here. That they'd follow him to wherever he held Joe; that all time was in the balance.

But it was something else that chilled Jodie to the bone.

Something else that made her even more desperate to help her great-grandfather.

"I come from _that_ ," she told herself, "way down the line, but I come from _that_."

While it was true that sometimes the boys had been curious as to whom they would marry in order to produce the girls, Jodie knew far more than a girl her age should when it came to relationships.

Whenever the boys and Samantha and Freddi said 'marriage', they didn't know that they had meant 'sex'.

That you didn't need to be married to have children.

Or even in love.

Because Joe certainly didn't love Phoebe.

Sam, Fred, Samantha, Freddi and Vicky were in the garden. Vicky had started to wave about her cooking spoon, which was glowing green and starting to vibrate.

This spell, she had told the four children, would attach itself to Mad Jack, if he was already in 1967, before chasing after him to wherever he was holding Joe.

"It's taken me a long time to come up with this," Vicky explained, "and uses a lot of my energy. But if you stand at the four corners, the magic will be confined into the circle. Don't worry; it won't hurt."

Uncle Joe was standing by the back door, watching the portal to outside of time appear high up in the air. The stars and galaxies all seemed to dance about, the green mist swirling rapidly around the five of them.

If this could find his wicked brother, Uncle Joe thought, the Fight Through Time will be soon over.

Jodie went inside the living room again, to see what Uncle Joe's pen had written on the wall. Sometimes it drew randomly, such as when it gave her answers to the geography test on her ceiling ("America is divided into three sections – the East Coast or 'Technology Advanced States', the Midwest or 'Redneck Country' and the West Coast or 'Hippie Country'; the capitals are Washington D.C, Denver and Seattle.") or the foreign relations ("The 'Lost Generation' refers to the various laws passed in India, but copied all over the Middle East and South Asia, where sixteen percent of communities agreed to not have children between the years 2020 and 2050 to cut down on pollution"), but now it was writing one, terrifying sentence.

 _Jodie, behind you._

Nervously, Jodie slowly turned to see Mad Jack standing ten feet from her.

"Guys!" she screamed, her eyes fixed on her crazy great-great-granduncle, "It's Mad Jack! He's here!"

Only Uncle Joe was close enough to hear. Running down the hallway and skidding into the living room, the moment he locked eyes with his brother, he ordered, "Give us back Joe!"

"Err, I think not," Mad Jack smiled horribly, "he's not even in this time zone."

"Where is he?" Jodie narrowed her eyes, her fists clenched.

"In my other lair. But before I go back, brother dear," Mad Jack pulled a tape recorder from his pocket and sat down in a chair, "I just wanted to play something."

Uncle Joe tensed.

"Don't – you – dare," his voice was barely audible, "don't, please."

"I recorded it when I stuck it under the table in the attic in the Girl Scouts building," Mad Jack spoke as if giving a lecture, "when I decided that it could be used to torture you. The one thing," he began mocking his brother, "you can't protect your nephew from."

The tape recorder whirred as the voices filled the room.

" _Listen, Joe, just relax,_ " a female voice was purring soothingly, " _I'm treating you like an adult._ "

" _Phoebe,_ " Joe's voice, older and broken, came out, petrified, " _please, get your hands off my chest. Let go of my wrist!_ "

" _Oh, come on, Joe!_ " the female scoffed. " _Don't you want to be the first boy in your class to get laid?_ "

Uncle Joe glared profoundly at Mad Jack, who was just leaning back in his chair, his fingers strumming against his staff.

"Turn it off," Uncle Joe spoke in a low, angry voice, "now."

"No." Mad Jack sniggered, clearly enjoying how much pain this was giving his brother.

Then they heard Joe screaming from the tape player.

" _You're my sister's Girl Scout Leader! You're almost twice my age._ " They heard Joe grunting and straining, " _You shouldn't do this! Help! Somebody help me!_ "

" _Don't even bother,_ " the female voice spoke as if this had been an inconvenience, " _they've all gone home or gone to the match. Besides, you're going to get tired anyway. I added something to your drink to spice things up._ "

" _You did what?_ " Joe's voice cried out in horror. " _You –_ " His voice suddenly became muffled.

Jodie could feel the same horror as a chill ran down her spine. She already knew what had happened, but all the same, it hurt listening to this. Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried desperately not to cry, but she did anyway. She placed her head in her hands, not daring to show weakness in front of Mad Jack.

"You put that down!" Uncle Joe yelled at his insane brother.

Mad Jack instead shook his head, grinning like a maniac. Which was easy, since he was one.

" _Just relax and I'll take my hand away,_ " Phoebe spoke in the same faux soothing voice, " _it won't matter in a moment. I've never had a boyfriend that didn't call me a freak. You're really attractive, you know? I'm surprised that you're not dating any girls your age._ "

Then Joe's voice started begging. " _Phoebe – I won't tell anyone about this. I won't get anyone. I'll – leave. Just – please – don't hurt me._ "

" _Nobody likes me,_ " Phoebe whined like a child, " _my parents hate me. My boyfriends all leave me. But you'll never leave me, will you Joe? You're mine. No-one else's, mine!_ "

Then the three of them heard Joe mumbling, 'no', over and over again, getting fainter and fainter as Phoebe's soothing tones carried on. Then the sound of a zipper being undone.

" _I want you,_ " she was saying, more to herself than to Joe, " _and you're going to give me what I want._ "

"I've heard enough!" Uncle Joe snapped, rushing up towards Mad Jack. Wrestling with him, the brothers rolled over on the ground. Jodie stopped crying and looked down. The tape player was still on the ground. Grabbing it, Jodie pressed the stop button, ripped the cassette from inside and pulled the tape out frantically, trying her best to not hear it inside her head.

"I always thought you were evil, brother," Uncle Joe tried to tear at Mad Jack's hair and beard, but his brother was swatting his hands away, "but even I never thought you'd stoop so low."

Mad Jack snorted, digging his nails into Uncle Joe's cheek.

"Well, brother," he spat, "it's just easy. I travelled back to December 18th 2009, attached the tape recorder to the table and took it when the building was empty."

Jodie howled again, placing her hand over her face. Uncle Joe listened and glared at his wicked brother.

"Jodie feels filthy because of that!" he snarled. "And Joanne blamed herself. Phoebe was disgusting! Do you think that Joe's descendants _like_ to hear how they came about?"

"So were most of our ancestors, who cares." Mad Jack simply replied, as if this were an inconvenience.

At that moment, he punched his brother across the jaw. Uncle Joe fell backwards and Jodie leaned over the junk to help him up. Mad Jack took the opportunity and ran out of the room.

As he headed into the garden, he saw that the portal was slowly zooming in on California. They'd see that he was behind them soon enough, so he took a chance.

Samantha screamed as she was lifted off of her feet and Mad Jack held his Bowie knife high, ready to throw it.

Fred and Freddi tensed. Sam simply yelled, "Hey! Give her back!"

"Sorry to burst in like this," Mad Jack laughed, as Samantha tried to kick and punch, to no avail, "but I need to go back to my lair. I have to do a bit of wife husbandry." He chuckled.

"Get off me!" Samantha tried to push his arm away, but he was gripping her tight.

"I think I've have _Year 3000_ as the wedding march," Mad Jack mused, "then again, there's a lot of 'time' to wait. Farewell, kids. When you next see me, I'll be the Ruler of Time."

Vicky was too exhausted to try and focus her energy into stopping him. On the other hand, Sam leapt at Mad Jack, clawing at his face.

Mad Jack dropped Samantha, who fell onto her chest. Sam was now punching Mad Jack's face, namely his jaw and his eye sockets. It was actually quite impressive for somebody whom Fred thought was built like a wet noodle. But Sam's fury was too strong to stop.

Samantha pushed herself up and backed away slowly. Fred and Freddi were watching with a mixture of curiosity, fear and surprise. Uncle Joe had locked eyes with Vicky, who was now carrying on with the spell.

Uncle Joe ran forward and began to pull Sam off, telling him that that was enough.

Mad Jack stood up as Uncle Joe took Sam out of the circle. Before Mad Jack could do anything, he disappeared in a swirl of mist; Vicky's spell had grabbed hold of his staff and sent him back to his other lair.

A few minutes later the five children were sitting on the porch, as Vicky and Uncle Joe talked in the living room.

"You know," Fred spoke up, breaking the lingering silence, "you were actually pretty good, Sam. I'd never have expected you to be that strong. I'm impressed."

Sam shrugged, not really caring about that. "I just want Samantha safe, that's all."

Samantha tried to smile, but all she could do was play with one of her pigtails in her fingers. "Thank you, Sam." She muttered.

"It's true," Sam leaned back on his hands and looked at her, "you're family. And I can't let family get hurt."

"Yeah," Fred mused, "it's a fate worse than death." Freddi patted Samantha on the back, as Samantha reached her hand up to grab her friend's hand on her shoulder.

Jodie didn't say anything. She simply walked inside.

When she was in the living room, she stood and watched as Uncle Joe and Vicky were discussing tactics.

"My spoon says he's gone to 1944," Vicky held her glowing wooden spoon out, "so you have to go now if you want to stop him."

"What if he's set up traps or something? Time Bombs, pits, tripwires?" Uncle Joe asked. "I know my brother. It's the sort of thing he'd do."

"Hey." Jodie squeaked.

Vicky and Uncle Joe finally noticed that she had been standing there. Vicky mumbled something about baking rock cakes and exited into the kitchen.

Jodie sat down on the floor, sighing.

Uncle Joe sat beside Jodie, pulling his grasshopper-like legs up to his chest.

"How much do you know, Jodie?" he asked, slowly and anxiously.

"A lot," Jodie rested her chin on her arms, "I saw a lot of stuff I could never understand. So I know more than Samantha and Freddi and a lot of other twelve-year-olds know."

"What – sort of stuff?" Uncle Joe asked, precariously.

Jodie answered, "Women's magazines. Mainly." She didn't cry, but sounded as if she was going to.

Uncle Joe cleared his throat and started to explain.

 **Brooklyn,**  
 **A Very Long Time Ago**

"Joe?" Joanne asked as she creaked open the door. He was sitting on his bed, still shuffling that old pack of cards.

"Ah, Joanne, I –" he coughed, "I need to talk to you. About Phoebe. I thought it was high time you knew."

Joanne sat down beside him and crossed her legs, eagerly. She seemed so cheerful, so sweet. This was the girl he had held and bathed and rocked. The girl he had taken to amazing places. His daughter.

This was going to be the hardest thing Joe ever did.

"Joanne, your – mother –" he almost spat the word, "she meant nothing to me. She was manipulative, cold, pushy. She always wanted things her way."

"Anna said you met her at Girl Scouts," Joanne's smiled faded, replaced with confusion, "the same one she went to."

"I did meet her at a Girl Scouts, yes," Joe sighed, running a hand down his leg and grabbing his knee tightly, "but the thing is, Joanne – Phoebe wasn't a Girl Scout. She was one of the members of staff."

 **1967, California**

Jodie nodded, sucking on her bottom lip.

"I know. I worked it out, Uncle Joe," she sniffed, "it was easy, when I knew how. About how Phoebe wanted sex. Why did she do it?"

Uncle Joe swallowed. He looked ashen and mournful, horrified at what would happen in his future.

"Why does anyone do anything evil?" he sighed.

 **Brooklyn**

"No!"

Joanne stood up from the bed and backed towards the door. Her mouth was agape, her eyes wide and desperate, one thought – one word – repeating itself in her head.

"She can't have!" Joanne felt the tears trail down her cheek before she even knew they were there. "How could a woman do that?"

"That's what everyone thought, back then," Joe sighed, not bothering to get up, only watch his distraught, disgusted daughter grip her plaits hard and slowly shake her head in horror, "but the fact remains that – that was the only time I've ever had – look, please –"

"Why?" Joanne sobbed through gritted teeth.

Joe got up and walked towards his daughter, holding her close as she wept, her cries muffled by his jumper. They stood there, letting her cry her heart out.

Cry for the boy her father had been.

Cry for how he had been used.

Used.

What a filthy word. Like a toy. A thing.

It had lasted three and a half hours, according to Joe, before he had stumbled down the main stairs and thrown up into a trashcan. His mother, who had come to pick Anna up, had been embarrassed and shut him in his room without supper.

The next thing Joe had remembered was waking up at midnight, desperately hungry. He'd pulled out a packet of biscuits from his wardrobe and fell back to sleep, his head splitting.

When he finally found out, he didn't eat the biscuits for four and a half years.

 **1967, California**

"Phoebe didn't know for five months." Uncle Joe explained, holding Jodie's hands tight, "When she was caught, she was hauled off instantly. A body search revealed her pregnancy."

"She said that it had to be Joe's," Jodie mumbled, "she seemed so happy. She said that she could be a proper wife and mother. She was absolutely delusional; I read what my great-great-grandmother said."

Uncle Joe stood up and looked at the floor, twisting his cane.

"When I learnt about this, when I was a Time Squire, when we saw our family's timelines, about what would happen to the next successors of the Book, I felt sick. Mad Jack felt repulsed; that's how bad you know Phoebe was."

"Didn't stop him wanting Samantha." Jodie muttered, narrowing her eyes in anger.

Uncle Joe nodded. "At least he was planning to wait until she was of age," he said softly, "Phoebe knew better. She was nearly twice Joe's age and working a steady job as a Girl Scout Leader. Jodie, this – is the hardest thing I have to do. Even worse than the Fight Through Time. At the very least, this is the hardest thing I have to do personally. I have to stand back and let Joe –"

His voice trailed off. He gripped his hat and sat down in Vicky's chair. He looked as if he might start crying. Jodie hoped he wouldn't. Aside from anything else, she didn't want the others coming in.

"He's going to need your help, Jodie," he didn't look at her, "when you've grown up. It's still two years away; you have time to prepare yourself. But he's going to need a lot of help. He'll be horrible to you, Jodie. Because you'll come from his child. The child – he despises."

"But when he first held her," Jodie remembered from another document from her great-great-grandmother, "he'll fall in love with her, and he'll feel as if he'll never let her go. He'll just love her too much."

Uncle Joe nodded. "It's amazing what parenthood can do to someone."

"I'm glad she died in prison," Jodie snarled, her eyes fixed on the floor, "stabbed in her cell. She deserved it."

 **Mad Jack's Other Lair**

Mad Jack had looked out over the island from the hilltop, as the sun set in the distance.

Only about a quarter of a mile wide in any direction, it was where Mad Jack had set up camp when he had first learnt to time-travel, before he had created his lair outside time. Sometimes, however, he liked to come back here and think. Sometimes he practiced spells and potions here. Unfortunately, that had lead to a few small explosions.

Maybe, when he ruled all of time and space, he could build his palace here. He needed somewhere bigger than a storage locker to live in, after all. He could use this place as a prison, when he finally had Samantha. Show her that being his wasn't so bad; he had this beautiful island for a beautiful girl.

Was it really a smart idea to fall for the great-granddaughter of his enemy's friend, he wondered. With all of time and space at his fingertips, he could have anyone. Cleopatra, Amelia Earhart, Pocahontas.

But she was a bonus. She would be his reward for defeating Joe.

Hopefully, she would be an easier prisoner than Sam or Joe. But Mad Jack doubted that. He still felt bruised and embarrassed at having been attacked by an eleven-year-old boy.

 _First things first_ , he told himself, check to see if they have arrived.

The six rescuers had landed on the beach just after sunset.

As soon as Vicky had enough energy to send them to where Mad Jack would be, they had thanked her and left quickly.

Jodie had her Book inside Joe's satchel, taken after she had done a quick stop in his bedroom. Samantha and Freddi asked why Jodie seemed a bit down, but Uncle Joe drew them away by saying that she just felt miserable about everything, to which they nodded, seeming to understand.

 _Except they don't_. Jodie thought.

Samantha and Uncle Joe were both holding flashlights. Samantha's was from Vicky's bedroom (who was frankly amazed it still worked) and Uncle Joe had a flashlight inside his pen. The children didn't ask how.

"Did we have to come after dark?" Sam complained.

Samantha dug her elbow into his side. "Oh, stop whining! Mad Jack arrived only a few moments ago. Blame him if you think it's dark."

But she still sounded a little scared. Of course she would be, Sam told himself, considering they were hunting a murderous lunatic on an island in the dark.

Sam swore that he'd had some nightmares that were pretty similar to this. They usually ended in a werewolf jumping out, though. He didn't know if bumping into Mad Jack was better or worse.

"Why would he even go here?" Fred pulled his jumper on. "It's deserted."

"I'd gather that this is his second lair," Uncle Joe stroked his chin, "I always thought that he would go somewhere for supplies."

"Didn't he steal from Mabel's Diner?" Freddi raised an eyebrow as she pulled on a cardigan from Vicky's house.

"I'm not sure," Uncle Joe shrugged, "but let's go. Watch out – he may have set traps."

"Wonderful," Sam murmured, "the worst day of my life."

"I thought standing in a freezing cold pool was the worst day of your life." Fred teased, grabbing his friend's shoulder and pulling him close.

Sam rolled his eyes, but managed a small smile all the same.

Still, the children told themselves, maybe this island looked spectacular in daylight. The soft sides of the hilltop in the middle had clumps of heather spread about in a funny pattern. The beach was smooth and the oak trees were tall and twisted.

Such a pity that the place was used by a crazed murderer.

Reaching a fork in the path, Uncle Joe shone his flashlight about. One sandy fork went ahead, whereas the other went some way up the hill. He wondered if this part was manmade. The stones certainly reminded him of the stairs in castles, the way they were sandwiched together.

"Could one of you go up there and take a look?" he asked.

"Not it!" Sam squeaked.

"Not it!" Jodie quickly gabbled.

"Not it!" Samantha and Freddi answered in unison.

Fred sighed. "All right." He frowned, taking the flashlight, climbing up the stairs.

"Joe?" Fred called out, looking about the rocky area. It felt even colder up here. He had to hold onto his cap to stop it flying away. Though that would have been the least of his problems. And considering he loved his cap that definitely meant something.

"I'm here!"

Fred's heart skipped a beat as he heard Joe calling for him.

"Joe, where are you?" Fred called out again.

"I'm in here! I'm in the hut!" Joe shouted. Fred looked down and in the dim light, he could make out a wooden hut.

As Fred waved down towards the hut, Uncle Joe took the other fork in the path and hurried towards it. Fred hurried down the steps as fast as his heels could carry him, catching up with the man.

"Joe?" Uncle Joe called loudly.

"Uncle Joe," Joe asked, "is it you?"

"Yes, it's me," Uncle Joe tried the door, "do you know where Mad Jack hid the key?"

"I don't know," Joe gabbled, "try and break the door down. It's not very sturdy."

On the third attempt, just as Sam and the girls were approaching, Uncle Joe had kicked the door off of its hinges. Holding up his flashlight, Uncle Joe scanned the room. Seeing his nephew sitting on the bed, he ran over, placed the flashlight on the floor and started asking if he was all right.

The five other children were now standing outside, watching in anticipation.

"I'm fine," Joe sound embarrassed, as his eyes flickered towards his friends, "the keys are in the top drawer."

When Uncle Joe had undone Joe's cuffs and they were walking out, Jodie asked, "You don't know where Mad Jack is, do you?"

Joe shook his head, putting a hand up to his head. "No," he groaned, "he made me swallow this – capsule. It made me go to sleep. To tell you the truth, my head's throbbing."

Freddi nodded, pulling her cardigan about herself. "He did the same thing to me."

"So, we have to find your crazy uncle, in the dark, on a freezing cold island with a twenty foot drop onto rocks below?" Sam moaned. "Yeah, my kind of fun."

Fred held his arm about his friend's shoulders and smirked. "Oh come on, Sam, don't be such a worry-wart. The whole thing's been an adventure."

"An _adventure_?" Sam crossed his arms in fury. "I'm not sure what _you'd_ call an adventure, but being kidnapped, standing in an icy pool for seven hours, hiding under a bush and walking about God knows where looking for a madman is _not_ an adventure!"

"But Sam..."

"I'm serious, Fred! I've been terrified of my wits for nearly three days, I've been buzzing around in a state, I feel like I've been inside a pinball machine, the amount of hallucinating and time-travelling I've done! And not only that but I've been scared for Samantha, too! I - I don't know what to do.." he howled.

He sat down and placed his head in his hands, squeezing his hair tight. For a moment it looked like he would cry.

"Look, I'm sorry," Fred sat down by him, "I wasn't thinking. OK? I – I was just trying to lighten up the situation. I mean, if you don't laugh, you cry, right?"

Sam gave a deep sigh. "I guess you're right, Fred. I – I just want to get out of here."

"Well, it's nearly over," Uncle Joe told them, "just have to find my brother and end this once and for all."

Sam and Freddi walked in front, each holding a flashlight, skimming it over the path as they went. Joe was gripping to his uncle like a leech, still scared. Jodie walked beside them. Samantha stood in front of the three of them, her head darting about in case she saw Mad Jack anywhere. It was bad enough that he was insane and wanted her, but being in the dark made it a thousand times worse.

"So where did Mad Jack say he was going?" Jodie queried.

Joe shrugged. "Not really sure. He said something about 'harnessing the power of the storm', so I guess that there's a storm tonight."

Jodie snorted, as if to say, 'just to add to my misery'.

"Then he's probably at the top of the island," Uncle Joe summarised, "lightning can be used by Time Agents to increase the strength of their spells. My brother uses them to keep portals open."

"Oh, he's also placed a bunch of traps over the island." Joe trailed off.

"We know," Fred mumbled under his breath, "thanks, Joe."

As they started to climb the rocky path upward, Joe put his arm out. "Stop!" he cried, pulling Sam back.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Sam asked, before Joe pushed a rock aside. Twanging a piece of string, everyone saw it begin to glow brightly. Holding up her flashlight, Freddi saw that a pit lay in front.

"Thanks," Sam mumbled, "but how did you know it was there?"

"Mad Jack stepped out of the way of them when he was taking me back," Joe explained, nonchalantly, "I remember how to get about here."

Taking Sam's flashlight, Joe skimmed it over the path, showing them a snare and another pit.

"But we still don't know where Mad Jack can be," Jodie complained, "and I'm cold!"

"Hey, I've had to stay locked up for two days," Joe crossed his arms in a huff, "consider yourself lucky."

Jodie rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Joe."

"Hey, what's that?" Fred pointed at the beach where a gigantic, lime-green flag was waving.

"It's a flagpole," Sam squinted, "possibly to catch attention. I mean, it's luminous. Could Mad Jack be signalling someone? Or is it a naval message?"

"I don't know what he could be doing," Uncle Joe held his hand over his chin, "but I think he could be down there. Sam, Fred, climb the hilltop to take a good look."

Before either boy could argue, they started walking up the steps very carefully, Sam holding his flashlight up.

"You seem a bit agitated, Jodie," Joe noticed, "anything the matter?"

"Oh," Jodie rubbed her arm, "I – heard something I shouldn't have. Mad Jack – he –"

"He told you about me and Phoebe," Joe looked into her eyes, pityingly, "and that one day I marry her. I don't know much, though, only that I marry Phoebe Robinson."

Uncle Joe turned around sharply, partly horrified and partly confused. "That's not her surname."

Joe held his hands behind him and blushed as he looked skyward. "That's what Mad Jack told me. He said her name was Mrs. Robinson."

"She's not called Mrs. Robinson," Uncle Joe murmured, desperate to focus on something else, "can any of you four see any traps?"

Samantha scanned her flashlight about, then called up the hilltop, "You see anything up there?"

"No," Fred turned his head from left to right, "only a dark sea."

"Dark night," Sam corrected him, "black waves, or a black sea, if you prefer."

"OK, Einstein." Fred rubbed his friend's hair.

"Please stop." Sam told him flatly.

The rest of them gingerly ascended the steps, looking out as well. "Nothing here," Samantha groaned, sitting down on a large rock, resting her head on her knuckles, "we're never going to find him. I'm going to spend five years worrying. And then he's going to get me!"

Pushing her glasses up, she placed her head over her arms and her body started shaking when she sobbed. Joe sat down beside her and tugged her closer, soothing her. "It's going to be OK, Samantha, we're gonna find him!" He tried to reassure her.

"Yeah, I guess." She fiddled with her pigtails.

"I'm actually rather cold." Sam shivered up on the hilltop, "Can I go inside?"

Then Joe stood up and pointed, crying out.

"What is it?" Fred asked.

"Yes, Mad Jack's on the beach," Joe waved his hand around, his finger still pointing, "he went inside that cave."

Sam and Fred started to make their way down the steps on the beach, feeling a little fed up at all of this. They were tired, cold and all they wanted was to go to bed, not chase after Joe's crazy uncle, who not only might be lying in wait, but had the Book.

"Joe, what are you doing?" Freddi raised an eyebrow at him as he started looking about uncomfortably.

Joe looked from one to the other as he then shuffled on the ground. "I – well, it's a bit embarrassing." he whispered.

"What is it?" Uncle Joe asked, leaning down, "You can tell me."

The girls moved back so that Joe could tell his uncle without any of them accidentally catching anything rude. As Joe moved in closer to Uncle Joe's ear, he felt underneath his t-shirt.

Slowly, he spoke, his voice deep and menacing.

"I've wanted to do this for a long time, brother."

Uncle Joe froze.

Then Jodie, Samantha and Freddi screamed as they saw the glint of the Bowie knife come out from under the t-shirt, as a green mist surrounded Joe. Before their eyes, Uncle Joe fell on his back, his hands clasping his ribcage. Suddenly, they saw Mad Jack appear where Joe had stood.

Mad Jack then disappeared in the green mist as the two boys, who had only seen the mist, came running up.

Mad Jack appeared inside the boathouse on the mainland, still cackling as he did.

Placing the knife into a bucket of water, he smirked as he congratulated himself on his acting ability. They hadn't a clue! He couldn't actually believe he'd gotten away with it.

That had been his plan; to get close and attack his brother when kidnapping Freddi had failed. True, he had wanted to use the shapeshifting spell to impersonate his brother and go into the Time Agency, but this was too tempting to resist.

After taking some of Joe's hair and mixing it in with the rest of the potion, he had transformed with ease. Of course, there was still some potion left in the staff, just in case he needed it again.

He was rather good at this potion, if he said so himself, although he'd had to remove Joe's handcuffs, since the metal would have reacted with the hair extraction by the staff. As soon as Mad Jack had completed the spell, he had set about his plan.

With difficulty (he wondered why he had not shapeshifted back, but no matter) Mad Jack had dragged his unconscious nephew back to the hut, bound and gagged Joe and stuffed him under the floorboards.

After all of this, Mad Jack had transformed back and travelled through time to go and tie up some loose ends. He hadn't quite expected to see his brother and the children at Vicky's house, but tormenting them was satisfaction enough.

Returning, he had transformed back and hidden inside the hut. Then he only had to wait for the sounds of their voices, handcuff himself and call out for help.

Without his nuisance of a brother, the five children would be helpless. Despite Jodie's knowledge of the Book, they wouldn't dare risk going back to the Time Agency, not if they had the chance to rescue Joe.

After all, who knew _what_ would happen if they left?

If Mad Jack went back to the island and inside the hut, he was sure that he would find Joe asleep. He'd used a much stronger pill than the one for Freddi. He was also sure that they probably wouldn't go back to the hut, anyway.

Mad Jack pulled the Book out from under a boat and smiled horribly.

"Well, I'd say that it's now 'time' to get what I've always wanted. I'll go back to the Time Agency, take over, have Samantha as my bride and rule Time itself!"

 **Mad Jack's Other Lair**

The girls knelt around Uncle Joe, frightened and in shock.

Freddi had pulled her cardigan off to tear at her shirt, trying to stem the bleeding. Jodie was leafing through the Book to see if there was anything that could help them. Samantha racked her brains to try and think of what to do next.

"That wasn't Joe?" Sam asked, his voice squeaking, "That was Mad Jack?"

"Well, he definitely fooled us," Freddi sighed, pressing down on the wound, "I wonder where Joe actually is."

"But even if we find him," Sam argued, "how do we even know it's him? And – there's a ton of _traps_ on this island! How are we even going –"

Fred held his friend's shoulders and spoke into his ear. "Hey, Sam, try to calm down. Take deep breaths, OK?"

Uncle Joe groaned as he tried to sit up. Jodie placed a hand on his forehead. "It'll be fine," she said, although she wasn't sure, "try not to panic."

Except that she was panicking inside. They all were, she guessed.

"Listen," Uncle Joe managed to tell her, "put this into the Book. Repeat after me."

She bent down and he whispered into her ear.

"OK," she was biting her lip as she put the co-ordinates into the Book, "if you think it might work."

"When I guessed – Mad Jack had – the shapeshifting potion, I should have thought -" Uncle Joe grimaced as the pain seared through him, "Jodie, use the Book to send me back to the Time Agency. You children – have to go on alone."

"Oh no!" Sam argued, "Not without an adult."

"You'll be fine," Uncle Joe tried to smile, but it was obvious that he was in excruciating pain, "Jodie, hurry. It might be the only way to save Joe."

Jodie opened her Book and put in the co-ordinates. A green mist emerged and covered Uncle Joe. Within seconds, he was gone.

The five children were alone on the island.

Joe's eyelids fluttered again. His head was pounding and he was too exhausted to move. Not that it would have mattered, as he found out when he tried to move his hands and noticed they were tied behind him. There was also something else tied around his mouth, to prevent him from shouting.

As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he could work out that he was somewhere small and enclosed. He started to panic, but then saw small clinks of light shining through cracks. He was underneath some floorboards.

Then he noticed what colour the light was.

And the sounds of his mad uncle snarling loudly.

What appeared to be a trapdoor was lifted up and Mad Jack held the light from the staff close to Joe's forehead. Joe could do nothing but stare at it, terrified.

Mad Jack smiled nastily.

"Pity you couldn't say goodbye to my dear brother," Mad Jack chuckled, "he's dead."

Joe felt a shiver go down his spine.

Uncle Joe, dead?

No, it couldn't be.

But Mad Jack was cruel enough to do it. Joe knew that. He just about stopped himself from crying; if he did, he might choke.

But his thoughts were running around inside his head, each one worse than the last.

Mad Jack noticed his nephew's puzzled expression and leaned on his staff.

"I used my shapeshifting potion to turn myself into you, Joseph," he said, without any hint of emotion in his voice, "and I stabbed him when I had the chance. I don't know where your friends are now. But they won't be able to stop me anyway."

Before Joe could even think, he heard a voice whisper into his ear.

" _Don't panic, Joseph,_ " it soothed him, " _your uncle will be fine. Daisy is taking care of him right now. Just focus on what I'm saying._ "

Joe could see someone standing behind Mad Jack. The figure was not quite see-through, but he wasn't far from invisible. As Mad Jack walked off and the light went with him, Joe could still see this person.

Hedgewing.

 _What are you doing? Have I gone mad?_ Joe wondered.

" _No, you are perfectly fine,_ " the ghost said without moving its lips, " _just close your eyes and focus on my voice._ "

 _I –_ Joe began to argue.

Hedgewing only held his palm up. " _Do not fret yourself, Joe. Close your eyes and listen. Usually this exercise involves breathing through the nose and out through the mouth, but as we are unable to do so as of this moment, all you have to do is listen carefully. Let my words wash over you._ "

 _But if I do_ , Joe thought, _what will happen?_

" _Something that has been a very long time in the making._ "

The five children stood close together on the hillside, cold, terrified and desperate.

Samantha was holding Freddi close, letting Freddi grip onto her. Jodie's mind was racing about in worry. Sam looked close to tears, although he didn't want to show this in front of any of them. Fred was trying to visualise what the island would look like in daylight, although only the parts they had been over before.

"I just don't know what to do," Jodie whimpered, "I don't know where to go, what to do. I feel stuck. My mind's buzzing around all over the place, guys. I don't know what I can do."

This was the last thing any of them wanted to hear.

If bossy, headstrong Jodie was stuck, then what did it mean for the rest of them?

The Book slipped out of Jodie's hands and onto the soft heather below.

"Huh?" Sam asked, leaning down to take a look. "What's on this date?"

Jodie went down on her hands and knees to take a close look. Her eyes widened, her heart beat fast and she almost smiled.

The mist started to surround them, sucking them away through time.

The place they ended up in was as damp, miserable and wet as the island. If it wasn't for the fact that there were a few lights in the distance and the ground beneath them was muddy, they wouldn't even know they had gone someplace else.

"Where exactly are we?" Fred asked, turning his head from side to side.

Jodie simply pointed ahead, without saying a word.

They saw a woman, in a grey coat, standing by a grave marker in the dim light. She was much closer to the source of the light – which the children noticed was an electric lamp from inside a building – then they were. She seemed to be the only person besides them in the graveyard.

Hopefully.

"Who's that?" Sam asked, his finger shaking.

"Joanne?" Freddi asked, more to herself than to the woman in question.

The woman turned to look at them. The boys were amazed at how much she resembled Jodie. True, her skin tone was closer to Joe's, but aside from that, she was identical to Jodie.

She was also older than them. She was possibly in her early to mid-twenties. The whole situation would have been strange, if they didn't experience strange things on a daily basis.

She walked up slowly to them. Smiling for a fraction of a second, she looked down at the four of them.

"Hi," she spoke to each of them in turn, "Fred, Freddi, Samantha, Sam. Jodie. Haven't seen you girls in ages. Oh, Fred, Sam, you look just like your sons."

"Erm," Fred rubbed the back of his head, a little taken aback, "you're – Joe's daughter?"

Joanne pursued her lips, nodding. "I am."

Then she held her fingertips to her head. "Oh, I knew this was coming."

"You knew Mad Jack was coming through here?" Sam asked, a shiver running down his spine.

Joanne nodded.

"How?" Freddi asked her.

But Joanne only told her, "I'm pretty sure you know who may have told me. But we'd better get moving."

Before Joanne could do anything, they all jumped when they heard the sound of footsteps coming out from the building.

"Hello, Jack," Joanne spoke without any emotion, as she turned, "don't even think of trying anything."

"Well, if it isn't my grandniece," he snarled, "the unwanted family member."

Sam and Samantha gripped onto Joanne's coat, hiding behind her. Freddi did the same, but instead she hid behind Fred. Jodie just glared at Mad Jack.

"Or should I call you something else?" he sniggered. "Warp Wizard's daughter? The little paradox? I have several different names I wish to call you. You should only take your pick."

"How did you know I'd be here?" Joanne sounded curious, but also worried.

"Because your Book stated you'd be here," Mad Jack said, as if it were simple, "technically Jodie's Book, since I looked at it before Sam and Fred contacted her. I just haven't had the 'time' to see you until now."

"Well," Joanne raised an eyebrow, smirking, "I've had years in the planning."

Pulling a small, green pouch from her coat pocket, she opened it and pulled some sparkling dust out. Blowing it from her hand, it suddenly swirled about Mad Jack. He was lifted a few feet into the air, yelling and spitting. But Joanne simply spoke incoherent words under her breath, her eyes narrowed as she focused.

Mad Jack then disappeared before their eyes, as did the mist.

"What – happened?" Sam asked, as he and Samantha came out from behind Joanne.

Joanne looked at them with sad eyes. "I sent him back to where Joe is. That spell? I weakened him slightly."

"That's amazing." Fred gasped.

"I've been practicing with that spell for years," Joanne put the pouch away, "but you need to go now. Oh, one minor thing left."

She took out a red pouch from another pocket. "Use this when you get to the hilltop."

"Why?" Samantha asked, but Joanne didn't answer.

Instead she pulled her Book out from underneath her coat. The children watched as she held her hand up and started chanting. Her head flew slowly back and green mist began to seep from the Book.

The five of them hastily thanked her, before they were thrown back through time.

Joanne then closed her Book and walked back to the grave marker. She stroked her fingers along the name engraved onto the copper memorial.

 _Phoebe Harding, 22nd October 1982 – 27th September 2022_

"I never loved you." Joanne said, without any hint of emotion, to her mother.

"Thank you." Joanne said to someone else.

The person who had killed Phoebe.

The person who had stood right next to her seconds ago.

 **Mad Jack's Other Lair**

They landed in the heather.

Sitting up, the five children looked about, before Freddi asked, "What did she mean, by the hilltop?"

"Not sure," Sam pulled some heather from his hair, "but we'd better go anyway."

As they made their way up, Samantha shining her flashlight about and Fred holding Uncle Joe's pen, they kept looking around for any traps.

They found one when Freddi stood on a flat rock at the very top.

Hearing her shriek, Jodie and Fred whipped around. In front of their eyes, they saw Sam, Samantha and Freddi transform in a green fog.

When the fog dispersed, Jodie and Fred were staring at a crow, an owl and a dove, all where their friends had been standing.

"Is this supposed to be _funny_?" Sam – the owl – flapped his wings about.

Fred couldn't help himself. He started to snigger. "Well, you do look the same outside as you do inside."

"Don't tease me," Sam scowled, "or I'll fly up and peck your nose off!"

"What exactly happened?" Freddi – the dove – asked, flying up onto Jodie's shoulder.

Jodie stroked her before she bent down to examine the rock.

"I'd guess that this could be one of Mad Jack's transformation spells. We must have set off a booby trap."

"How do we turn back?" Samantha groaned. "I don't want to end up a crow for the rest of my life."

"Don't worry," Jodie pulled Joanne's pouch out, "I think I have to blow this onto you."

"I think it's supposed to represent the bird closest to our personality," Samantha pecked at a symbol drawn onto the rock with green, luminous chalk, "see? It's a bird. I guess I'm a crow because crows are clever and nothing escapes them. That's what our teacher said, anyway. And she's a hippie."

"I get that," Sam considered, "and I'm an owl because I'm smart."

"And you never get up in the mornings." Fred groaned.

"So why are you a dove?" Jodie asked Freddi.

Freddi shrugged, which looked rather strange on a bird. "Maybe because doves are peaceful and friendly."

"I bet you'd be a parakeet," Fred teased Jodie, "the annoying, bickering thing that stops me from concentrating in baseball."

Jodie gave him such a horrible scowl that he gulped and took a step back. Jodie then took a pinch of powder, blowing it in her friends' direction.

Almost instantly, the three of them turned back into humans again.

"You know, that spell could prove useful," Sam pushed his glasses up, perhaps to remember that he had then again, "remember San Francisco, Fred?"

"Yeah," Fred crossed his arms, "but we have to try to find Joe first."

When they had reached the hut again, Jodie precariously pushed on the door with one finger. It slowly creaked open, before she called out, "Joe?"

Fred shone the pen inside into an empty room.

Freddi and Samantha stood outside on the steps as the others gingerly crept in.

"Joe?" Fred hissed, a little louder this time.

Muffled noises came from underneath them. Sam pointed to where he had heard them. When Fred flicked the pen in that direction, they saw what appeared to be a trapdoor. Jodie knelt down and heaved it up, groaning as she did so.

When Fred held the pen over the gap, Joe blinked rapidly, trying to see beyond the light.

"Joe?" Fred asked, going onto his knees and tugging the gag from his friend's mouth. "Is it really you?"

"Of course it's _me_!" Joe argued.

But the three children looked at each other, unsure.

"Do you think the powder would work on shapeshifting spells?" Sam asked Jodie.

Jodie nodded, pulling the pouch out. Joe stared at them in confusion as Jodie blew a small handful of red powder in his direction.

"Hey!" he cried. "I think that went up my nose!"

"Is it the real Joe?" Fred asked Jodie.

Before she could answer, Joe snapped, "It's _me_! Listen, I heard what Mad Jack did. I can understand why you wouldn't trust me. But you've got to believe me, guys!"

A scream from outside caused Jodie, Fred and Sam to turn about. Samantha and Freddi were pointing at Mad Jack, coming over the pathway towards them.

"Lights off!" Samantha hissed, turning her flashlight off. Fred followed suit and the six children listened in darkness.

They heard Mad Jack grumbling outside, before he passed the hut and down towards the beach.

"I guess that really is Joe." Sam whispered, when they were sure that Mad Jack wasn't in earshot.

Turning the light from the pen on, Jodie stood back as Fred started to untie his friend. When Joe could sit up, he held his arms around Sam and Fred, pulling them close.

"I missed you guys." He whispered to them.

"Listen, Joe -" Fred began, but Joe nodded.

"Mad Jack stabbed Uncle Joe. But it's fine. We just have to concentrate on one thing at a time."

After pulling him up, the six children left the hut and glanced down at the beach. The sky in the very distance was turning a faint red, enabling them to see Mad Jack a little better.

"What do we do now?" Samantha asked, worried, "I know there's six of us, but he's a grown adult. And he has magic. And who knows how many booby traps."

"Wait until he comes up, then we attack." Fred suggested.

"I'm not sure," Jodie shook her head, "we could try the Time Agency and get Daisy to help."

"I don't know," Sam held his hand to his chin, "did he say he would do anything, Joe?"

"Joe?" Freddi asked, looking at him, standing some feet away.

"This won't take a moment," Joe sighed, looking scared and determined, "just bear with me."

"Joe, if something's wrong –" Fred began, but Joe held his palm up.

"It's my fight," Joe replied, confidently, "I have to do this alone."

"He'll _crush_ you," Sam argued, "we have to help."

Joe smiled for the first time in days.

"No, Sam. I can defeat him."

Joe started muttering something under his breath. Suddenly, the branches on the nearby trees started to dance as if in the wind. The leaves flew off and floated around him in an invisible tornado. The sound of a grandfather clock chiming sounded as Joe was lifted off of his feet, eyes closed and chanting silently.

A green mist encompassed him, holding him up as his eyes glowed a vivid green. None of the others dared go near him. They didn't even know if he was suffering. But one look at his calm and relaxed face told them that that was unlikely.

"Joe?" Jodie asked, after endless seconds of silence. Stepping forward, she held her hand out towards the tornado.

Joe's hand grasped hers back and he looked at her, a small smile emerging on his face. His eyes still glowed green and he was hovering in the air. But he was content with whatever was going on.

" _Joe is fine,_ " Hedgewing spoke back to her, " _He is now the Warp Wizard. For I am in his body. And I shall have vengeance on my killer._ "

"Joe?" Freddi asked, a chill running down her spine.

Joe turned his head to smile at them, strangely.

" _I'm afraid not,_ " he spoke to them in a clear voice, " _I am Jeremiah Hedgewing, the previous Warp Wizard._ "

"How is this possible?" Freddi's eyes grew wide. "What exactly happened?"

Hedgewing smirked for a second before he floated around them, very slowly, without taking his glowing green eyes off of them.

" _I was not on the earthly plain when Mad Jack murdered me. To become the Warp Wizard, you must understand, the prior Warp Wizard's ghost must give their powers over, all at once. But since I had been killed when my spirit was not in my body, I could only hand them over slowly. I had to do this through the Book._ "

"That actually explains a lot," Fred's mind rushed at the speed of a mile a minute, "why Joe's powers only seemed to come occasionally."

Hedgewing nodded. " _My spirit was faintly linked with Joe's. This was mainly due to the fact that I was observing my successor's timeline when Mad Jack stabbed me. He certainly is an inspiring young man, if his illusory magic needs a few tweaks._ "

"I've been telling him that for years," Fred muttered, "and he doesn't listen."

" _I could only reach Joe's mind when the time was right,_ " Hedgewing stood by Jodie again, " _so please forgive me if I did not come until now. But, children, I must take action. I need to stop Mad Jack. Do not do anything unless I tell you._ "

Joe's body floated out over the sea, turning around after five hundred yards. Then he descended slowly, coming closer to where Mad Jack was sitting, on the large rocks.

" _Hello, Mad Jack._ " Hedgewing spoke.

Mad Jack almost dropped his staff when he saw what lay in front of him.

"Hedgewing?" he squeaked.

When Joe's head slowly nodded, Mad Jack scowled and gripped onto his staff tighter. "Never mind. I shall have the pleasure of killing you a second time!"

He shot out a green beam of light with his staff, as Joe's body shot up a few hundred feet into the air. Looking down, Hedgewing called, " _Can't you do better than that?_ "

Growling, Mad Jack called out a spell, as his entire body shivered and suddenly turned into that of a swan. Not for the first time, he wished he had chosen an eagle, but no matter.

Zooming up, he chased after Joe and Hedgewing, squawking loudly. Hedgewing stopped running, standing still before leaping up and somersaulting backwards as Mad Jack came close. Then Mad Jack flew out over the sea and through the twisting rocks. Hedgewing simply stood still, biding his time.

On the ground, the five children were unsure whether this appeared more bizarre, frightening or ridiculous.

When Mad Jack whizzed back towards them, Hedgewing conjured up time mist from Joe's hands. The time mist surrounded the two of them as they began to wrestle, flickering in and out of the time zone.

They appeared in every place Joe had been, everywhere he and the Book had travelled to. Each place was just for a second, but they floated in the air as day, night, summer, winter, even outside of time, blurred about them.

Joe's eyes still glowed green as Hedgewing lead the body, his and Joe's spirits working as one. He had never felt so peaceful yet so furious all at once. His small, skinny body felt much stronger as his magic, Hedgewing's magic and Hedgewing's taller and broader form in life all worked together through his veins.

Mad Jack felt nervous, although he would never show this. His wickedness had made him unstoppable.

But Joe's kindness, friendliness and eagerness made him even more powerful.

They appeared again on the grass, only feet from the other five. Mad Jack turned into himself again, standing tall and digging his staff into the ground. His clothes were torn and his face was bleeding. Joe also looked a little worse for wear, but if it affected him, he did not show it.

"Very well, Joseph," Mad Jack spat, "you leave me no choice."

With one hand he grabbed Jodie by the hair and held her over the side of the cliff. She screamed, her hair tearing from her head, her arms holding onto his for some sort of balance.

"One move from anyone and she falls!" Mad Jack cackled loudly.

Joe was frantic inside, but Hedgewing only let him appear thoughtful.

Sam was still, heart beating in his mouth.

Samantha was shaking, terrified.

Freddi was as still as a statue, scared that if she even moved, Mad Jack would see it as an attack.

Fred, the only one of them who hadn't been abducted, attacked or tormented by Mad Jack, narrowed his eyes and tried to remember where to tackle if he got the opportunity.

Hedgewing seemed to read this from Fred's body language, although maybe some of that had been due to his own ghostly abilities.

" _Very well,_ " Hedgewing stood up straight, clasping his hands together and pointing them at Mad Jack, " _we shall compromise. I shall take Joseph's Book from where you hid it – I know you hid it under the rock on the hilltop – and hand over all of time to you, to do so as you wish. You can rule time and have young Samantha as your bride._ "

Sam and Samantha were too horrified to argue.

Mad Jack seemed a bit suspicious. Coming an inch closer, he kept his focus on the ghost inside his nephew.

 _You have to make sure Joe survives_ , Joanne's words echoed in her ears.

 _Even if you don't._

Jodie squeezed her eyes tight and tried her very best to be brave.

"Mom, Dad, my sisters, I love you," she whispered under her breath, "Samantha, Freddi, you were the best friends I could ever have. Fred, Sam, you were a pain, but you are amazing. Great-Uncle Joe, be strong. Anna, make me proud. Joe – I love you. With all my heart."

Jodie focused her leg out towards Mad Jack's knees, kicking at the back.

He toppled backwards, falling onto the grass and groaning, letting go of her hair.

Hedgewing had known this would happen. That was why he had negotiated, to distract Mad Jack from dropping Jodie. Screaming " _Fred! Now!_ ", Hedgewing had lurched forward and dived over the cliff. Fred crashed onto Mad Jack's chest, gripping tightly onto his elbows. When Sam and Freddi went forward to help, they glimpsed down at Hedgewing reaching out and holding Jodie's hand.

Jodie had closed her eyes as tight as she could. If by some miracle she survived the drop, she would have to try to swim over to the beach. But she knew her chances, if she did survive. The waves would wash over her or freeze her in the winter air.

Behind her eyes, Jodie saw white light and felt soft arms close around her.

"Don't be scared." She heard Joanne's calm voice soothe her.

"Joanne?" Jodie asked, "Is this real?"

"Perhaps," her grandmother spoke as Jodie's eyes opened, "stay calm."

Jodie felt the huge, feather wings surround her as Joanne pulled her close. When Jodie looked up, she did not see the old, exhausted woman, but the young, carefree child.

"Just relax." Joanne told her.

Jodie nodded, closing her eyes again and let herself be rocked.

When she opened them again, she saw Joe's glowing green eyes frowning in concentration as he grasped her hand. Hedgewing slowed her descent, lifting her up and flying back to the others.

"Jodie!" Samantha wrapped her arms about her when they landed, the tears streaming down her cheeks.

Hedgewing walked over to Mad Jack, who was trying to push the three children off of him. His staff lay out of reach and he was rapidly getting crosser.

Hedgewing went onto Joe's knees and spread out the palms onto the wet grass.

" _I cannot think of any punishment that would include drawbacks,_ " Hedgewing shook Joe's head in concentration, " _but I shall do one thing._ "

Closing Joe's eyelids, Hedgewing muttered under his breath. The ground beneath them glowed in an unusual pattern. Taking the cue, Sam, Fred and Freddi ran back. As soon as they did, a green light emerged from Mad Jack's throat and from his hands. His staff floated in the air and rushed to the five children, who stepped away.

Joe opened his eyes and stood. Turning back to the children, Hedgewing reassured them, " _He is now powerless. It is not kind to remove powers from anybody, especially one as powerful as Mad Jack, but this is how justice has to be served._ "

From far off, the Book floated to Joe's outstretched hand. A time mist covered Mad Jack and he disappeared. Hedgewing turned to the five children.

" _I thank all of you for getting this far. You are truly brave, clever and kind. Joe is lucky to have you._ "

"Erm, thanks." Sam mumbled. Fred held his head to the side and smiled uneasily. The girls all tried to smile, but found that they were too scared and weary.

" _I shall say farewell,_ " Hedgewing started to type into the Book, " _farewell, good children._ "

As wind rushed around Joe, the green mist surrounded the six of them, pulling them back to the Time Agency.

 **Time Agency**

Landing by the indoor pool, Joe looked about, amazed.

"They didn't say there was an indoor pool." He remarked.

"You're back?" Samantha asked him.

Joe nodded. "I feel really sleepy. As if I haven't slept in days. Hedgewing was really kind, though. He was actually a really nice guy. Shame I never met him when he was alive."

"Oh, hello!" Daisy emerged from a door that none of them seemed to notice.

"Daisy, how's Uncle Joe?" Jodie asked.

Daisy nodded, a small smile appearing. "He is resting at the moment. Anna is currently with him and can't wait to see you."

Inside the guest room, Uncle Joe was lying down under a duvet as one of the men who had been meditating outside placed bandages on his chest.

"You made it!" he laughed. "Anna! They made it!"

Anna looked up from the television (which was in black-and-white) and ran up to Joe, hugging him. Then she withdrew and frowned. "Never tell anybody I did that."

"Where's my brother?" Uncle Joe asked, curiously.

When the children had explained, in turn, what had happened on the island with Hedgewing and the Fight Through Time and Mad Jack's powers, Uncle Joe's eyes flicked towards Daisy.

"I checked the brig when the children arrived," she nodded, "no magic is used in there. Mad Jack will be locked up for the remainder of his natural life."

"Sounds a bit cruel." Freddi mused.

"Yeah, I mean, he did attack us several times," Sam agreed, "and tried to murder us and wanted to marry Samantha. But it still seems a little much."

"It is more than Mad Jack deserves." Daisy replied.

"Let's go home," Anna held Joe's hand, "I want Mom."

"Me too." Joe sniffed. Over the last few days, all that they wanted was to return home, safe and dry.

"Well, it seems that Vicky sent a food package," Daisy held out a tray to Uncle Joe as the children sat down, waiting for the Book to send them off, "rock cakes."

Uncle Joe's eyebrows flew up. "No, thank you! I think _actual_ rocks would taste better."

"Why hasn't the Book sent us home yet?" Sam asked, pushing his glasses up.

"Ah! One more thing!" Uncle Joe reached to his bedside cabinet and flung George's watch in Sam's direction. "George will stay at the Time Agency. He's too badly injured to leave. He wishes for you to have the watch."

"Hey, isn't that Samantha's watch?" Fred asked, pointing at it.

"Yeah, it is!" Sam's face brightened up.

The time mist surrounded them as they waved goodbye to Uncle Joe.

 **2006, Brooklyn**

When the boys landed on Joe's bed, they all fell backwards.

"I feel exhausted," Joe groaned, "I'm going to hide the Book somewhere where I can't touch it."

Sam and Fred were too tired to argue.

"You know," Sam said, giddily, "I never thought the Fight Through Time would look anything like it did."

Anna had opened the Book up to see the girls, back in December 2106.

"Bye," she waved her hand at the three of them, "hope I'll see you soon!"

 **2106, Brooklyn**

Jodie looked at the Bowie knife that had fallen from Mad Jack's sleeve as he dropped her. It had gotten stuck on her shoe and she had pulled it out and hidden it underneath her shirt.

Jodie picked up the Bowie knife with trembling fingers. Her blood flowed through her veins, pounding in her ears, knowing what she had to do.

"Jodie?" Freddi asked, peering over her shoulder at her, as the connection to 2006 ended, "What are you doing?"

Jodie gripped the Book in her hands as the mist surrounded her. "I won't be long." She spoke in a low, firm voice, which was more than a little frightening to them. "I just have somewhere to go."

 **Attica Prison, New York State**

Jodie appeared behind Phoebe in the cell.

"Hello, great-grandmother," Jodie shocked the woman, who immediately dropped the chalk she was holding, "this is for Joe."

"Who are you?" Phoebe demanded, shaking with fear, which was something that the sociopath didn't do.

"Me? Oh, I'm your great-granddaughter. I'm just going to commit the murder a long time in the making."

 **2006, Brooklyn**

The three boys and Anna left the room, taking the Book up to the attic.

"So, when do you think we'll meet our spouses?" Fred asked.

"Not sure," Sam replied, going up the attic ladder and hiding the Book inside a box, "but it's sure to be a great adventure!"

That night, all three boys had the same dream.

They were in the Time Agency, sitting on picnic benches. They were all considerably older, as were the girls, who were all by them. Anna was taking a picture with a camera, while a woman in her early twenties and two young boys knelt in front of the bench. Automatically, the boys knew their children's names; Joanne, Seth and Erik.

"All right, yell 'time warp!'" Anna grinned.

"Time warp!"

Then they laughed as Anna took their picture.


End file.
